World Cultural Heritage Red Clay Mountain Town

Traveling westward in Spain ~ Leon (region) Carucedo is the starting point for the climb to Las Médulas, a landscape formed by red and craggy clay mountains set amidst green vegetation It stood out and was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1997. Las Médulas was a masterpiece of Roman engineering, who exploited the many rich gold deposits found in the area. To do this, they used a complex system of channels to divert water from the Aquilano Mountains, 15 kilometers away. The Romans would drill galleries into the mountains (some of which are still standing), flood them, and then wait for the water to cause the mountains to collapse into washhouses, where they would examine the fragments in search of gold. Over time, these washlands turned into lakes, such as Lake Pozosumido or Lake Redondo. In total, they extracted about 240 million cubic meters of soil for mineral separation, yielding an estimated 800,000 kilograms of gold. This mining process, combined with vegetation and natural erosion, managed to create the stunning landscapes we see today. #2024TravelReview #SpainTravel #Castilla-Leon