Today we have been overwhelmed by the mysterious landscape that surrounds us, and we have all had a sense of awe whilst driving through the Altiplano region of Granada. We had never heard of the area before, we just stumbled across it as we found our mountain campsite in our guidebook. The wonder was how did this hugely diverse landscape all come about?
According to a guidebook, the Altiplano is an inner plateau. It is a extremely diverse region. There are mountains all around the area forming a sort of wall. The landscape is known as badland, and has been mined in the past for gypsum and sulphur. Features around the area are a wooded island, inland beaches, dry riverbeds. There are plants and animals that I haven't seen before. There are mountain springs, and open pools called fuencaliente that you can swim in amongst fish.
The paleontological sites around Orce are considered the most important in Europe. 17, 000 fossils have been found between 3 sites, including the fragment of a hominid known as "Orce man". We've seen it today in the museum in Orce. It's impressive! As are the remains of the sabre toothed tigers, mammoths, deer, horses and even an elephant!!! There are a million square metres with fossils at a site we drove past today in Venta Micena.
For me, what has been most amazing today has been the cave houses, a sort of prehistoric looking way of living, but on closer inspection, the chimneys popping up from various rocky outcrops are all still in use today, and we were assured that they are all cool in summer and warm in winter. What a way to live! Architecture to live and work in, farmhouses, cottages, flour mills. You name it, we've seen it! A fascinating day today and a real insight into life in this part of Spain. In many ways it hasn't changed since the days of the troglodyte dwellings. Mysterious. Awesome. Wonderful.
Clare
No comments:
Post a Comment