La Bastida: a Bronze Age city above Totana
Six kilometres northwest of Totana, La Bastida occupies a hillside that once held one of the major settlements of the Argaric world. Its excavated walls, terraces and house plans give the place an urban scale surprising to anyone expecting a scattering of prehistoric huts. The setting also explains why position and control mattered.
The local story
La Bastida belonged to the Bronze Age culture of south-eastern Iberia. Excavation has exposed substantial defensive works and evidence for closely organised domestic life. The site is an archaeological landscape, so its most important features are often low foundations rather than standing monuments. A guide can restore the heights, routes and social choices that are hard to imagine from stones alone.
Plan the visit
Book through Totana's official tourism channel and follow the arranged route; the site is not a casual open gate on the roadside. Wear sturdy shoes for uneven, exposed ground and bring water. Avoid climbing walls or collecting fragments. Back in Totana, the town centre and the road towards Sierra Espuña provide a different scale for understanding the wider territory that supported this early city.
How it connects
The visit extends Murcia's archaeological story beyond Cartagena's Roman shore and into a much older inland settlement.
Sources
Written in September 2026 using Turismo Región de Murcia.