The park area includes: the castle of Peñarroya; the ruins of the castle of Rochafrida; the Cueva de Montesinos where a passage in the Miguel de Cervantes novel Don Quixote has the eponymous hero spend a night; and the house of the King in the village of Ruidera.

Cervantes roamed this district as a tithe proctor for the Knights of St John at Argamasilla.

In his novel, Don Quixote learns that the inhabitants of the Cueva de Montesinos – Guadiana and Ruidera, together with their seven daughters and two nieces – have been transformed into a river and string of "lakes" by Merlin the magician.

UNESCO has included the natural park within the biosphere reserve Mancha Húmeda.

The natural park acts as a buffer zone to the core area of the biosphere reserve, the Tablas de Daimiel.