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The Gaitanes Gorge is a canyon carved by the Guadalhorce River in the province of Malaga, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain, between the municipalities of Ardales, Antequera and Alora. It has access from the north through the Guadalhorce reservoirs and from the south, through the village of El Chorro. In the narrowest sections, it is only 10 meters wide and reaches more than 400 meters high. It was declared a natural site by Law 2/1989 of July 18. There are very interesting hiking trails in the area.

The construction of a water channel from the northern reservoirs to El Chorro, to take advantage of the difference in level here in a hydroelectric plant, led to a maintenance path of this channel, known as “Los balconcillos” and later as Caminito del Rey, because the work was inaugurated by King Alfonso XIII on May 21, 1921. This path of more than 3 kilometers long has a vertiginous part, made of steel bars and concrete platforms nailed to the vertical wall and a bridge over the same gorge over the water channel.

The rehabilitated path was opened to the public on March 28, 2015 and was chosen by Lonely Planet as one of the best places to visit in the same year. Until the arrival of the AVE, the gorge was the only rail access to Malaga capital from inland Spain, with a long tunnel dug into the east wall of the gorge. At present, there is another 1 kilometer tunnel, further east, under the Sierra de Huma, for the AVE railway access.