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The Granada Basin contains several sites that include Late Pleistocene loess. About seventy samples of fossil soils and sediments in six representative soil sequences were studied using palaeopedological methods. The results form a basis for a regional pedostratigraphy and a high resolution indicator of changing climate during the last interglacial/glacial cycle in the Western Mediterranean. Ten fossil soils of different ages show some similarity to the Middle European loess stratigraphy. It is thus inferred that there was a regular climatic sequence in this region during the Late Pleistocene with sedimentation during dry stadials and soil formation during wetter interstadials even in the sub-humid to semi-arid parts of Southern Spain. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved.