Don't forget to visit the Old Guards Castle. The Old Guards Castle is a quadrangular Coastal Battery with a moat and drawbridge, which had a parade ground, stables, chapels and 4 cannons. In 1764, Carlos III, promulgates a regulation with the purpose of creating a defensive coastal device, that protects from corsairs. José Crame, a military engineer from the Kingdom of Granada, is in charge of planning several buildings in the area for this purpose, very similar to the Old Guards Castle, such as the San Felipe Castle in the Nijareña town of Los Escullos. The fortification began to be built around the year 1769, but during the Spanish War of Independence —between 1808 and 1814— it was destroyed by the English army, to prevent its use by French troops, so it had to be rebuilt. in 1817.
The Castle is currently owned by the Junta de Andalucía, the El Ejido City Council has carried out rehabilitation work on the building, which houses a permanent exhibition of clothes and weapons from the Napoleonic era. It was restored in 1980. Years later, in 1985, the monument was declared an Asset of Cultural Interest.
Once the visit to the Castle is over, we descend to the beach where we pass next to the Punta de los Baños Lighthouse. This lighthouse came into operation in mid-July 1991, with a white concrete tower, it is embedded in a field of greenhouses, except to the south where it borders Playa de los Baños, separating it just 60 meters from the coastline. Its 22-meter high tower stands out over the flat and low Punta de los Baños and when we get closer we will see the curious shape where the lights are located. In front of it is the "Bajo de Culo Perro", marked out, since rocks protrude from the not very deep sandy bottom and where, in the past, numerous accidents occurred or numerous ships were stranded, such as the English steamer Massillia in 1862 or Norwegian Hangland in 1917.
This is a beach called culo perro by the locals located in the town of Guardias Viejas, in addition to enjoying the wonderful waters we can visit an old fortress, the castle of Guardias Viejas
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