La Carretera de Sa Calobra

Sa Calobra Road, (officially designed MA-2141), with a length of 13 km only, and located in Majorca Island, Spain, is one of the most scenic drives in the world. Imagine dropping a long piece of wet spaghetti on the floor. The pattern it makes looks something like what the road looks. Snaking through the rocky landscape of the island, the eight-mile stretch of tarmac is also steep. Built in such a way as to avoid using tunnels, a fair proportion of the road has a gradient of more than 7%. If you really want a challenge, try tackling it by bike.

Ruta de Sa Calobra (the Colubrid route) includes the infamous Nus de Sa Calobra, a curve of 360 degrees. This tie is one of the most famous curves in the world, turning 270 degrees and going under itself. It’s said that from Mallorca city to Sa Calobra Creek there are more than 800 turns. Built in 1932, when Sa Calobra had only a few habitants, this road is for sure the most spectacular on the island nowadays and famous for its snake-like shape. Created by the engineer Antonio Paretti it winds naturally around the mountain edges, a masterpiece of twists and turns. 31.000 m³ of rock were removed which was then used to level the road. To reduce the amount of excavation at this point, the architect drew inspiration from a neck tie to come up with the idea to make this crazy loop in the road. It is called the “Necktie” and measures 12 km leading down to the bay of Sa Calobra.

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