Located in the south of the province of Jaen, bordering to the north with La Loma y Las Villas, and to the south with the province of Granada, and a good part of the district has been declared a Nature Reserve.
The district is dominated by a mountainous massif in with the highest peaks in the province, but there is an area of countryside to the north and east, and in the areas on fertile plain of the Guadalquivir, Guadiana Menor and Jandulilla rivers.
Olive groves are an almost exclusive monoculture in the district except on the fertile river plains, in which there are irrigated industrial crops and small orchards, currently hardly even developed. Olive groves generally occupy areas with on the slopes of the mountains.
The flora is very varied, with everything from heath and mountain pinewoods, with some oak groves to the southwest of the district, to typical countryside vegetation, with esparto-grass and clumps of thyme bushes in the summits of the hills, through to the riverbank vegetation, typical on the rivers.
The fauna is also very varied, although as regards huntable species, small game dominate. For larger game, only the presence of some wild boar is important.
Agriculture dependent on olive tree dominates the economic activity of Sierra Magina, although, locally, some other activities can be quite important as is the case with the textile industry (in most towns and villages), the wood furniture industry in Huelma, vegetable canning in Bedmar-Garciez or sausages in Noalejo, Carcheles and Campillo de Arenas.
