The explanation for how the Romans altered the mountain presents a picture they were FAR more powerful than I could have ever imagined, with technology. The plan is amazing, but their investment of the lives of so many people is unforgivable. Undoubtedly this operation took more lives than the casual estimate, but the decision to do it was made by people who would hever suffer any of the hardship, and would benefit from outrageous profits from the gold trade.
This is shocking, to say the least. The illustrations on the page and your animated link are tremendous, they do a wonderful job explaining.
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Las Médulas, the gold of Hispania
The Marrows 01/22/2015
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Las Médulas is the landscape environment resulting from the ancient Roman gold mining. This environment is located near the town of the same name , in the El Bierzo region , province of León, and is considered the largest open pit gold mine in the entire Roman Empire .
Las Médulas, arrival of the Romans
The Romans arrived at Las Médulas from the hand of Octavio Augusto between 26 and 19 BC. and although the pre-Roman Indians had already exploited the site, it was the Romans who made the area the largest open pit gold mine in the Empire.
The very Pliny the Elder was administrator youth of mines, and thanks to him we know that is extracted to the year 20,000 pounds of gold, which, considering the 250 years of exploitation, would give five million pounds of gold , that is, 1,635,000 kg. The workforce was also huge. Pliny speaks of 60,000 manumitized workers, in such an unfortunate working condition that Pliny himself says:
«It is less reckless to search for pearls and purple at the bottom of the sea than to extract gold from these lands»
Montium Ruin, the origin of the landscape of Las Médulas
Thanks to the fact that the environment provided everything necessary, the Romans channeled the water from the streams, holding it at the top of the farm.
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Then they pierced the mountain with steep galleries, and released the water through them. The force of the water destroyed the mountain and dragged the gold lands to the sinks.
Las Médulas, Ruin Montium
One of the ingenious Roman methods of collecting water, started from the northeast side of Mount Teleno, no less than from an altitude of 2000 meters.
There the Romans accumulated the snow that later, already turned into water, reached the Cabo river, which in turn fed the seven channels that, bordering the mountain, reached the exploitation ponds.
Las Médulas, extraction scheme
These channels, whose length is estimated at about 300 kilometers, have a slope of between 0.6 and 1%. The width is 1.28 meters, except in the curves, 1.60 meters, and its depth is 90 centimeters. The construction of these channels, which in some sections run under the rock in the form of a tunnel, was, by far, the most difficult and expensive work of the operation, and it can be said that the hydraulic system of Las Médulas is the most spectacular of those known, for the amount of water used and the length and large number of branches of its channels.
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The Roman exploitation works for the extraction of gold ore, supposed a tremendous alteration of the environment of the area, and left a landscape of reddish sands, which was covered with green vegetation of chestnut and oak trees over time, until the point that today has the consideration of "Cultural Landscape", being declared "Well of Cultural Interest" in 1996 for its archaeological interest and "Natural Monument" in 2002, as well as a World Heritage Site (UNESCO 1997).
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