We proceeded on, breaking camp on Friday the 16th, heading past Valenca across the river to Tui and Spain and then to old friend O Porrino, for groceries and recharging our Spanish simcards and mifi. And from there we drove further east, into the mountains, to Monforte de Lemos and its nice
aire on the river. And from there, next day, we drove on to Las Medulas, yet another World Heritage site, one of many in Spain, and the largest of Rome's gold mining undertakings. The day was warm, then hot, but we persevered.
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At the aire in Monforte de Lemos |
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Nice view |
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But too hot to visit |
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Las Medulas is an extensive site, as one might expect of strip mining operations |
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Yeah, the Camino Santiago (Frances) passes through here;
it will be days before we're off it; happily, not on foot anymore,
however |
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Nice life-sized dioramas in the museum; memo to self: whatever you do in the
next life, do not be a Roman slave; actually, don't be a slave, except possibly a sex slave... |
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Artifacts |
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Helpful model: essentially it was placer mining...they tunneled into the soft rock,
flooded the tunnels until the mountain burst, then picked through the detritus;
"mountain ruining" they called it; the big achievement was the hydraulic
engineering, that is, getting the water into the tunnels; the Romans were good at
moving water |
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Sluices also a major part of it |
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At the resto next to the museum; "hail, Caesar!" "hail, yes!" (favorite line from
junior high school; I played Cassius in the school play; no one would accuse me
now of having a lean and hungry look; OK, maybe hungry) |
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Major ruined mountain |
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For some reason, the camera again switched on to Etkachrome
mode |
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Ruined landcape |
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Exposed tunnels |
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More ruined landscape |
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Tunnel opening overlook |
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Click to enlarge and read Pliny the Elder's description of all this, which is
actually interesting |
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We might have gone on a tunnel tour, but it would have been an hour's wait
in the heat |
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So I got one for the road and we proceeded on; note the composition of the rock...
basically mud with nuggets of this and that, including, once, some gold |
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Vicki was particularly impressed with the overhanging buildings in one of the
villages, which caused us to swing wide on the 12% grade |
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We proceeded on, dreaming of shade |
1 comment:
Didn't know Spain had gold from anywhere except the new world. Interesting...
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