Las Médulas: The Mountain Rome Washed Away

Las Médulas is the largest open-cast gold mine of the entire Roman empire, and what is left of it is a landscape of red sand peaks and gorges now half covered in chestnut and oak. The Romans began working here under Augustus, who personally directed most of the campaigns in this region between 26 and 19 BC, because gold was needed for the new aureus coinage. The method was ruina montium: over 400 kilometres of channels brought water into galleries cut inside the mountain until the pressure burst it apart. The spoil created Lake Carucedo. It became a World Heritage Site and a protected cultural asset in 1996.