Las Médulas : something you can not miss

The Archaeological Zone of Las Médulas, located 20 kilometres from Ponferrada, is considered one of the finest examples of the imprint that History has left on the landscape.  Owing to this it was declared a “World Patrimony” by UNESCO on 4 December, 1997. 

Las Médulas are the remains of an alluvial gold bed.   According to published research, the earliest exploitation was carried out by panning for gold, which was a method which consisted of extracting, cleaning and then sifting the gold-bearing sand and gravel which was then put through a washing pan. 

However, the massive exploitation which has left the impressive archaeological remains we can see today was carried out  during the Roman period.  It seems that in order to extract the gold, channels were dug, many of which were excavated through  hard rock. The total amount of channels sums up to 100 kilometres.