Trevor Huxham

Usually when you think of Roman ruins —in Spain or elsewhere—usually things like crumbling arches, faded mosaics, and fallen-in house walls come to mind. Sometimes there’s a grand aqueduct , and maybe even an amphitheater , but all the sculptures, gravestones, and artifacts are on display in a nearby museum . In any case, you’ll most often see memorials to important dead guys or monumental ruins. Las Médulas That’s why I was so surprised when I visited  Las Médulas:  all that is left of the largest gold mine in the Roman Empire.  Although the modern Spanish word médula  can mean “bone marrow” or “spinal cord,” the name for these mining ruins probably comes from the Latin  metula , the diminutive form of the word meta , which meant “cone” or “pyramid”—which makes sense given the other-worldly rock formations that make up the ruins. Close-up shot Hidden away in the rugged Bierzo region in northwesterly León province, the open-pit mine has sliced th...

Entrance Tucked away in a mountainous corner of northwestern Spain lies the tiny sub-region of El Bierzo.  Pronounced “bee-AIR-thoe” [ˈbjer.θo], this cultural area takes up the western third of the province of León and is a “mini-Galicia” amidst the dominant northern Castilian region. Unique meats like cecina  (cured beef) and botillo  (chunky sausage) are popular here, the French Way of the Camino de Santiago passes through here, many folks speak the Galician language , and everything is generally greener (and rainier , too). The Sil River Ponferrada is the principal city in El Bierzo, a bustling, 70,000-strong town in a sea of sleepy mountain villages. On my way back from León in March, I came here to visit my friend Laura who I met while working down south two years ago; she was one of the many auxiliares  that the bigger city of Linares was home to, and we both got placed in the northwestern part of the country this past school year.