The red clay formations called Las Médulas owe their angular character not to the shaping hands of nature but to those of gold miners—and not grizzled "49ers in grubby flannel and overalls, but 1st-century excavators clad in tattered tunics. When gold seams were discovered here in what"s now northern Spain, the Romans who controlled the region created a clever system of tunnels and canals under the hills, through which they channeled water from nearby streams to build pressure that cracked away huge chunks of clay.
There was gold in them there hills…
Today in History
More Desktop Wallpapers:
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National Hummingbird Day
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A personal collection becomes an institution
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Merry and bright
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Travel Sunday: Liverpool
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A state-of-the-art lookout on the Rock of Gibraltar
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Bridge of Sighs in Venice, Italy
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Spring awakens
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A willowy welcome to spring
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Paris is photo-ready this week
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Bird’s-eye view of the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, California
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Uredd Rest Area, Norway
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Dalyan, Turkey
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Sparkling ice diamonds on a black sandy beach
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Winter solstice
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The crossroads of empires
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Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in Washington, DC
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In praise of bogs, swamps, and marshes
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Balloon Ascension Day
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Traffic jam on the caribou highway
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Go Fly a Kite Day
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River otters at Acadia National Park, Maine
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Aerial view of a heart-shaped field in Trittau, Germany
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Sailing across the ice
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Carnival of Venice
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Are you older than this lake?
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Napping away New Year s Day
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Hezké svátky
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Tigh Mor Trossachs on Loch Achray, Scotland
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Churún Merú waterfall in Venezuela
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Château de Villandry, France