Go to the trouble of getting plain yogurt, yet perhaps you want sugar with it?
Puffy cloud layers above.
Let’s walk up this scenic valley. What’s that curve in the rock wall?
What a giant, gorgeous cave! Archaeologists have found early Upper Paleolithic remains that show repeated short-term visits (not creating deep deposits), including hearths spaced at about 3m apart. These visits are interpreted as related to the seasonal migration of prey species like deer and horses.
However, current usage leans heavily toward the rock-climbing crowd. I count at least 20 safety helper carabiner lanyards, or whatever they are, on the small section of the roof, ready for the next upside-down adventurer.
Back on the road, we see signs of clearing.
Clouds below, nice.
No rain or mist, so we climbed a hill to see this now-scruffy Roman town now called Labitolosa. It had two bath complexes, and a curia and forum, so it was at least locally important in the 1st C BC (so pretty early); it supplanted an indigenous community.
Details of the big bath complex.
Descending, we could see how still the water of this reservoir was.
Our route away from that area took us through this stunning gorge.
Soon, we were out on what I’m calling the windy flats, here with a bonus tire sculpture.
Scattered towns seem lightly active with farming.
Much further along, we checked out these Roman aqueduct piers (actually vertical—it took a wide shot to get them all in).
The Roman town the water supplied is today called Los Bañales. This area was the forum. The later building complex in the background is called Ermita de Nuestra Señora de Los Bañales. One record I found dated some of its architecture to the 1740s.
Here’s a section of road connecting housing above the civic-ceremonial zone that included the forum.
Here’s the view down from higher up. The aqueduct piers are visible. This is looking east.
From the top, the light made the landscape look rather different when we looked to the northwest.
This area is separate from the civic-ceremonial and had many elite domestic complexes. I saw two parallel wide streets; this was the upper one. This settlement was later than Labitolosa, dating to the 1st C AD, so after the Romans had dominated this area for several generations.
Our hotel is within the old Medieval core of Sádaba, although the façades of the two buildings opposite our room look later. Recent demographic data indicates the highest population of the town was in the 1960 census. It’s less than half that as of 2021.
We heard a story on TV the other day about housing problems in Spain. I think they meant in the large cities, however, as the rural areas we’ve been passing through show a significant percentage of apparently maintained and usable housing that is not inhabited.