For a brief, shining moment in history the region in and around Almeria, Spain served as the primary for dozens of Italian and other European Westerns during the "Spaghetti Western" craze of the 1960s and 1970s. Spain was often used as stand-in for the American West but the Spaghetti Westerns skyrocketed in popularity with the 1964 release of Sergio Leone's revisionist Western A Fistful of Dollars in 1964, followed by its sequels, For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Several years later, Leone would film much of epic Western Once Upon a Time in the West in Almeria's Tabernas Desert. Interest in the genre extended into the mid 1970s when an overabundance of Leone wanna-be directors clogged theater circuits with cheap imitations of his work. Gradually, film location work in the area ground to a halt. In a remarkable photo essay for the Daily Mail, photographer Sarah Orndhorf visited the sites and sets as they appear today. Some are well-preserved tourist attractions while others are deteriorating. Among the other films shot in this region were Lawrence of Arabia, Play Dirty and The Hill. To view click here