Zahara de la Sierra is a municipality in the province of Cádiz in the hills of Andalusia, southern Spain.

It is perched on a mountain, overlooking a valley and a man-made lake formed by the dam that must be driven over to access the town.

Due to its position between Ronda and Seville, it was a perfect site for a castle to be built to serve as a fortress in case of attack.

This capture gave a pretext to Castile's war against Granada.

It was finally captured by Castilian troops under command of Rodrigo Ponce de León, Duke of Cádiz in 1483.