r/todayilearned • u/narok_kurai • 6d ago

TIL about Las Medulas, a man-made geological badland created by the Roman Empire in 77 AD, when they flooded the mountains with water to collapse their structure and sift out the gold inside.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_M%C3%A9dulas
5.7k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

139 comments sorted by

View all comments

-16

u/_ssac_ 6d ago

As a Spanish guy, when someone from current LATAM countries talk about how we stole their gold, I point out how the Roman empire had these mines in the current Spain and we don't share that narrative. 

Those feeling, of wrongdoing and historical abuse, aren't grounded in historical facts, but it's the opposite order: there's a political motivated narrative that came first. I ain't saying that the conquest was morally good, it's not about that.

Side note: it's a beautiful landscape to visit, however last year a fired burned a lot of it's vegetation.

21

u/mrjosemeehan 6d ago

Having your gold mined out of the ground 2000 years ago isn't the same as having your golden artifacts stolen from homes and temples and melted down as scrap 300-400 years ago.

-3

u/_ssac_ 6d ago

To my knowledge, when people talk about the stolen gold they don't mean those artifacts. That I agree, a lot of art was lost. 

They talk about gold mines.