Musings

Here’s another pair of settlements, the west one on a hill and heavily fortified with tall walls of large stone blocks, and another on an island in a lake. Both were occupied from the 6th–5th Cs BC (so: Iron Age), thriving even when the Greeks settled at Emporion (see yesterday). Indeed, the walled site was a regional capital, with perhaps 6,000 residents, large grain stores and an active trade with the Greeks in luxury goods. Archaeologists know far less about the island settlement, and it is not open to the public, so I know even less. The Romans conquered the territory at about the end of the 3rd C BC, and these settlements were abandoned in the 2nd C BC.

The layout of the capital is interesting, with the lake to the east and south, and a major wall along the other sides. I’ve drawn in the wall, and the bumps along it are large, round towers plus two angular ones. “G” means gate. We entered the South Gate, and outside it is a deep moat. “T” indicates a pair of temples that were built on the summit of the hill. “E” is an elite domestic complex, huge, and it has produced most of the fancy, expensive goods found at the site. The name archaeologists use for this site is Ullastret, which is the nearest town, and no relation the name its residents used.

Ditch outside south gate, view south.

South gate, view east, looking into settlement.

Houses in the southwest part of the site.

Archaeologists call these silos, which makes sense as they are round and were for storing grain. Only the bases, which were excavated into bedrock are visible now. When used, they had conical tops with a small opening at the peak made of a mixture of mortar and ground discarded terra cotta. They were lined with the same mixture, and apparently totally sealed when finished. What surprised me is they were not reused—I hypothesize it’s because they couldn’t be properly sealed again.

The left half of this area is the elite complex. It had its own small gate through the defensive wall. The interpretation is that it was used by a large family unit. I don’t know any of the details of what archaeologists found here, but I keep thinking it may have been an area used by a guild of traders—but were there such groups?

Plopped on the hilltop, obliterating one of the temples, is a church that is now a museum. Today a student group was making house models with glue and blocks and cork roofs.

Here’s the foundation outline of the surviving temple. It seemed pretty good-sized to me.

That almost complete circle of trees is the island. Imagine this view when the lake still spread around it.

View north along the outside of the towers. Formidable.

Not yet high tide on the beach near our hotel—I’m guessing as the rack line is still dry.

Three-second exposure from our balcony a few minutes ago: that’s Orion in the middle…I hope the resolution isn’t so hammered it erases him! [Zooming will help.]

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Orientation first. Left satellite view; this is the southern Gulf of Roses. On the right is Greek Emporion (amplified right), Roman Empúries (left lower, with “R”). North is “up.” The scale is huge. IMHO, these were cities, not ho-hum towns.

First, however, indigenous people lived in the area. Although later occupations have covered them up, that round knob at the top, an island with an elevated summit, was an Iron Age settlement, and inland were others.

Greeks were trading here before establishing a settlement. They first built on the knob to trade, and called it Palaiaopolis; the harbor was to the south of the island. Celt-Iberian pottery was changing from this presence by the 7th C BC. In the 6th C BC, Greeks moved to a new area to the south of the harbor; they called it Neapolis. This community was given repeated updates and modifications. By the 4th C BC, this was a city with a Greek layout—including an acropolis on the highest spot, and markets and an agora, the central public space. In the 2nd C BC, they beefed up the walls, expanded the sanctuary areas, and added new port structures.

You can research the warfare/conflict that gave the Romans the upper hand by the 1st C BC. On the left, the rectangular “R” area is the Roman city. Ultimately, the grid of streets was 6 or 7 wide, and 15 north-south. The amphitheater is just outside the wall south of the southwest corner.

Now, some photos of the Greek city.

Sarapieion temple, southeast corner of Emporion.

Peristyle domestic complex, the largest of Emporion, close to the bay and immediately south of the agora.

View east-southeast, with stoa along the left (colonaded public structure), and agora in mid-ground.

View south from houses north of the agora, down the main north-south street of the southern part of the city.

Port—now green grass and trees; view north.

Acropolis. View is to the north. I found it amazingly small, perhaps 5×5 m.

Somehow this is a water filtration system, up near the acropolis. No info was offered about how it worked.

This gives an indication of the density of houses (almost all of these rooms were dwellings/dwelling complexes), looking toward the acropolis from the main north-south street, view to west.

They’ve put a museum in the church, between the two cities. This statue was found in 1909 in the temple area in the southeast of the city. The upper part was in a cistern, and the rest in the temple where it stood originally, and a replica stands now.

From the museum, we ascended the hill and entered the Roman city. It is vast. This view is from the northeastern edge of the excavated area, looking south. I’m pretty sure all of what you can see, except perhaps the tallest trees, lies within the city (maybe not the walls, but the city).

Here’s looking the length of the forum from the north. I’m standing on the front of a large temple honoring Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva. Colonaded structures lined the other three sides, and more temples flanked this one on the north side. Again, all but perhaps the tallest trees: in the city.

Looking north through the door/gate in the south wall, up the main street, the length of the city. Ish. That partial structure on the left is a reconstruction of the southwest corner of the forum.

Outside the wall, but snugged up against it is the amphitheater. The vertical element is gone, and I find it difficult to visualize its scale.

Well, that’s enough. Remember, too, that, big as this Roman city was, the whole population of the immediate area was not living here. Indeed, there were other communities and villas scattered about. ’Nuff said.

Posted at 12:54 PM | 1 Comment »

A wee bit of scientific data: the sun indeed rose again today.

For today’s adventure, we drove north. I saw these fields before, and thought: rice. This is now confirmed. Rice. Good for cazuela cooking, like paella (a specialty of Valencia, way south of here, as I understand it), but there are other regional dishes using the same or similar shallow, flat-bottomed, metal pans.

We have also been seeing these plantations, and I now think most are apples, although some may be pears or similar. The orange orbs are I think insect traps. The black lines on top are folded shade cloths.

Our main stop was huge—the Ciutadella walls etc. were ordered by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, in 1543. Its on the north shore of the Bay of Roses. However, this fine location on a good harbor was settled by Greeks, and I suspect had earlier inhabitants. The Greeks called their settlement(s) here Rhode. To decode: the red G means Greek structures. The aqua R means Roman. The yellow means Medieval, and MC is the Medieval church. Some of this is later than Medieval and un-labelled. These are the parts that are very visible and/or most interested me.

The encircling wall is massive.

The marked rivers/creeks are approximately how they were in Greek times, and this is the Greek settlement area to the right/east of the “right” creek. The shoreline at the time was inside of what later became the Ciutadella wall. When it was built, seawater lapped the south wall base.

Here’re Roman foundations. There’s no difference to my eye between Greek and Roman here—similar scales.

On the west side of the interior of the Ciutadella, this view is north toward the Medieval Church, a major street that had buildings lining both sides.

This bird’s eye(ish) view is from a tower in the northwestern part of the southwest corner.

Perhaps you can tell from the previous two photos that the church is on a hill. It also had Greek buildings, and archaeology shows they occupied at least three places along the northern arc of the Bay of Roses.

Homework: create your own caption….

Moving on…. That hilltop above the scrub is the ruins of a Visigothic fortification, dating to the 7th and 8th C AD. It’s called Puig Rom and does have good views of the Bay of Roses, not shown in any of these photos. The word puig is Catalan, and it’s tough to pronounce…it’s something like poo-ee-[th], but the [th] has an almost guttural aspect.

Puig Rom has an encircling wall with only one gate/break in the wall (center). Houses have been exposed inside the wall about ¾ of the way around.

On this side, there are also houses outside the wall. The other sides are rather steep, but there are narrow terraces, so they may have house foundations.

And, we returned to our oasis by the sea…always the sea….

Posted at 12:42 PM | 3 Comments »

What a first peek outside our window!

And there’s the sun! [Forty-four minutes later, but who’s counting??!!]

Off on our adventures, aha, there’s the first castle we’ve spotted, waaaay up high.

We enjoyed the last few meters before reaching an Iron Age village, along with munching cattle. [For the amount of dairy and pork we see on the table, we see remarkably few of those critters in the countryside.]

And there’s the settlement…with working archaeologists! Actually, looking at recent maps, that is the highest settlement area; more is “behind” us/me. But what’s exposed is ahead….

This rather large room produced multiple Greek and greek-style artifacts, including large ceramic vessels. This settlement was well-connected with Mediterranean coastal trading ports, undoubtedly Empúries, 12 miles away as the crow flies, so a day’s walk if you were in good shape and the path wasn’t muddy.

This area was built later, and some houses had even larger rooms.

Next stop: Lake Banyoles, the largest lake in Catalunya, and long renowned for its fishing.

Cormorants look like cormorants.

Early 20th C fishing (and bathing) “hut”—there’s more than a dozen spaced along this stretch of the shore.

However, people fished Lake Bangles even in the Neolithic. This hole is a below-the-water-level excavation that has now re-flooded. The water kept organic artifacts from rotting away, preserving wood, basketry, bones, seeds, and textile matter that’s usually totally absent. Archaeologists also found the remains of buildings, including structures on pilings.

Today’s Roman site is a farm called Vilauba. It began as a U-shaped building from the 1st–3rd C AD. Later, more rooms were added through the Visigothic period. This was the location of the press (represented by that interior rectangle of stone), probably for olives (I should have read the signs more closely, but: Catalan).

Speaking of Catalan, this room was a “rebost”, meaning pantry. The raft of pottery containers found here kept various foodstuffs and items (relatively) safe from critters and insects.

Back at our hotel, I took the trail down down down…

…to the beach. It’s pretty much high tide, I think.

Back up at the hotel, I spotted a gull taking a bath in the (closed for the season) pool. I shot a series of photos and discovered it turned its head to the right every time it ducked (is that term okay?) under. Here it’s fluffing its wings and tail.

Posted at 12:37 PM | 2 Comments »

Leaving Capellades via the highway in the valley, we looked back up at the Quaternary travertine cliff formation. Here I see probably more modern housing carved into the soft-ish rock, but not the caves. Still: interesting.

We visited a geopark in a valley lined with caves. We didn’t arrange to enter them, just walk the path in the valley, and peek through the bars. Cova del Toll.

Cova del Toixoneres (Catalan spelling), usually Teixoneres in the academic literature. The strings outline 1 m squares to trip the workers…um, to make it easier to keep locations straight.

Artistic rendering of comely young archaeologist.

Cova Morta. They get significant runoff here at times, I’m guessing.

Reconstructed Neolithic huts.

Beside the access road to the cave-valley: dolmen de Cuspinar, dating to the Chalcolithic (sometimes called the Copper Age), so after the Neolithic.

Also by the access road, Republican trench from 1936.

Roadside view—high-elevation snow.

Heights with snow; horses in foreground (ignoring guardrail).

Our first view of the Mediterranean: Playa Castell walking to the Castell.

Look at some of the huge stones at the Castell de la Fosca, a promontory fort. Ascending to the top is no longer permitted, but at this level, inside the protecting wall at the neck of the peninsula, excavations produced datable remains. The first occupation was in the 6th C BC, in the earlier Iron Age—several small semi subterranean huts, then abandoned. The site was reoccupied in the mid-5th C BC, and the hut depressions were used for garbage. The maximum population was in the 4th C, and into the 3rd C BC, when buildings were built on terraces along both sides of the landform. The presence of column bases (shown here), of imported stone, and other features suggests there was a public building, possibly a Hellenistic temple, on the highest point in the community. Both Greek and Phoenician trade goods are among the pottery/material culture recovered by excavation, although most artifacts are of indigenous types/styles.

Enough archaeology. We have arrived at our home away from home for the next six days, and the splurge of the trip. Here’s our private patio and our sea view. Lovely.

From the secure railing, here’s the view down onto the rocks where the sea is crashing.

The room is designed so you can chose to shower watching the Mediterranean—at least until the glass steams up! Dinner at 8pm tonight (we chose early), petit breakfast at…we chose 8:30am. Off to eat, sleep, eat. Good night!

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On the table as we sat down to breakfast: salt and olive oil. This is (drip-line irrigated) olive orchard country, and there are plenty of new terraces being built and planted. The development seems to be by multi-national agribusinesses, not small-holders.

It’s 10am, and the sun’s too high for a sunshine slow-down.

The map on the left shows the Ebro River, flowing north-to-south on the far left. The site, called Castellet de Banyoles (Tivissa), is triangular, with the only foot access from the right as there are cliffs elsewhere. The right map is an enlargement of the fortified entrance there (see next photo).

Those two points facing us are the rebuilt bases of two large pentagonal towers that totally controlled access to this ~4.4 ha city.

Here’s one residential compound, two rooms wide and three deep, with the doorway in the front. Often with such a layout, the innermost room was where people kept their valuables, food, etc., so that visitors could be permitted only in the front/reception room, and remain ignorant of the family’s wealth.

Here’s another compound, two very long rooms deep, and two wide.

This very wide open area functioned as a broad street between dwellings left and right. Despite all this construction (I haven’t mentioned the effective sewage system for the whole city), this settlement was built in the 4th C BC, and was wealthy, probably producing Iberian drachmae coins, imitating types from the Greek city of Emporion, far northeast of here on the Mediterranean. Excavations recovered luxury goods of gold and silver (including earrings, bowls, plates and bracelets), pieces of lead bearing Iberian script, and significant traces of metallurgical activity. The Romans burned/destroyed the settlement about 200 BC, probably in connection with indigenous revolts, although there is some evidence of reoccupation. Recent fieldwork has found Roman-period items east of the fortifications, which point to a Roman camp having been established there.

Over the wall to the west, a bend of the Ebro was below, and the arable land that this city controlled, too.

Here’s the southwest lookout tower base, visible in the map.

Our second site today was totally different. It’s on a tiny, narrow landform, and overlooks a small tributary of the Ebro, so it is not in the main valley. The settlement was far earlier than Castellet. It’s called Puig Roig (red hill in Catalan—from the rock substrate, not the sign!), and dates to the the ninth and eighth centuries BC.

These walls are not even 2m apart; these were much smaller rooms.

These are the largest rooms I saw….

Here’s the central street, not quite two meters wide. During occupation, I’m sure it was more level than at present.

Generic mountain drive view, 12:30 pm.

Look what JCB found! Don’t recognize this “Tasty Burger” place? It’s a Mickey’s! [Part of the Playland sign is visible, left.]

We checked into our hotel and made a paseo (walk). Here’s a perimeter entry, now only one-way for vehicles. [And rightly so!]

This town is called Capellades, and is famous for making paper of cotton/linen rags plus hemp, including for cigarettes and currency. Look at the detail on the bottom of the balcony floor! We stopped here because of Abric Romaní, a rockshelter in the Quaternary travertine cliff formation (called Cinglera del Capello) that forms the east edge of the town. Excavations from the multi-meter deep deposits recovered important information on Neanderthal lifeways in the area, with dates to the Late Middle Paleolithic, and the oldest layers dating to ~56,000 yrs ago. Only the top layer (Layer A) dates to the Upper Paleolithic and has Aurignacian artifacts indicating human use. Open hours are scanty, so we’ll look at the cliff setting and move on.

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We took the long way back to our room after breakfast (the short way was maybe a dozen doors away), and the maze of streets brought us by the church, and the door was open!

So we looked in. Two priests and fifteen parishioners. What a surprise to see that oval ceiling and pantheon-like dome. A bit of digging (you know where), and I see that the building, Iglesia de San Pedro Mártir de Urrea de Gaén, was designed by Agustín Sanz (also the contractor for construction), with the building completed in 1782. The unusual layout was allowed by the church’s patron, 9th Duke of Híjar, Pedro de Alcántara de Silva Fernández de Híjar. A very progressive design.

We drove quite a ways, trying to absorb a bit about the always changing landscape. Here’s a lovely valley.

We reached our first crossing of the Ebro River, the major river of northeastern Spain. It’s south of the Pyrenees (duh), and flows east-southeast with a large, roughly triangular basin that I think was a breadbasket in Roman times. It eventually turns south and cuts through some low mountains, before reaching the Mediterranean at Tarragona. We will spend perhaps almost half of this trip in the Ebro basin. [Map on WikiPee here.] The area along the river is called the Ribera today. Shortly after crossing this bridge, we entered Catalonia, where we’ll stay for the next eight-ish days.

On our hill-climb to the first yacimiento ([archaeological] site) of the day, called in the literature Sebes, I spotted these flowers, mostly old dried out, but not this specimen. The one to the left is different. I don’t recognize either.

The heydey of Sebes was the Early Iron Age (7th C BC, and thus pre-Roman), when I think the best place in town was up here, but structures were on many terraces below the hilltop. Here’s the view of the Ebro from the high-point.

On a lower ridge-nose, the Sebes people put their dead beneath these careful rings of stones. Long before the Romans, people in Iberia put their dead outside their communities, but close by.

That ridge-nose off to the right and barely visible has the ruins of a later Iron Age settlement, high (as you can see) above the Ebro. The name for it today is Sant Miquel de Vinebre, so not an indigenous term that the Romans recorded before they ousted the inhabitants in 44 BC. Further parsing the photo, you can see the geological bottleneck to the left, which allowed this site to control passage up the Ribera, and the arable lands to the right or west-northwest and out of the photo.

This site is typically referred to as El Molar for the adjacent town. John says the community’s business is dentistry, but the WikiPee indicates it’s agriculture (olive and almond orchards, plus some vineyards). This site dates to the Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age (so earlier than the two above), and is along a narrow N-S ridge. Most of the excavation was a century ago, so we have far less data than if had been opened up in the last several decades. However, excavators did save some funerary artifacts of copper and lead. Interestingly, this site is in a mining area that produced the lead, but not the copper, although copper is known from the area. Instead, the copper was from southeast Spain, mostly from the Linares mines of Jaén, and, to a lesser degree, from mines in the Almería province. So I read.

We reached Catalonia, an autonomous community (Spain has 17), not a province. Here’s another bridge across…the Ebre, Catalan for Ebro. Our second Catalan word befits language learning in a Catholic region, and is creu, meaning cross. Poking around the internet just now, I learned that in Catalan, the name is Catalunya. Now up to three words!

Note the three balconies of laundry (I gotta include some cultural anthropology)—and one without—perhaps preparing for the weekend?

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We got on the road before sunup, having quite an adventure trying to get the gas pump to accept our credit cards–no problems yet anywhere else. JCB finally used cash…and we zoomed off….

First stop was a ghost town amidst active agriculture high on a slope above the Río Grío, a tributary of the Jalón, which flows by Calatayud.

Almond parts: seed/nut, shell, then these: hulls…dessicating and rotting roadside next to an almond orchard.

We walked into the Castillo de Langa del Castillo, and found this central tower still standing; a sign indicated the excavated area in the foreground was a church.

The Castillo fortification has steep walls and only one entrance. Portions of five wall-towers remain. Notes indicate this was a large enclosure for the time. Note how sections of the fort are starting to hive off. Conservation is never-ending.

From one “corner” of the castillo, we could see the piscina municipal below. We’ve seen swimming pools in quite small towns, like this…suggesting there was a provincial or federal program supporting their construction.

Somewhat later, we zig-zagged through some complex geology/geomorphology along the Río Aguasvivas near Segura de los Baños.

We also encountered a road crew cleaning up after a rock slide. Yes, the car fit between the pile and the guardrail.

Here’s a look at the upstream side of a Roman dam south of Muniesa. See the curve helping the dam be strong against the weight of the water?

Later, we went toward Muniesa proper, and checked out the cemetery on the edge of town, established in 1903. Most people are planted in a many-rowed columbarium, and I was surprised how many continue to be deposited here. Many plaques note that they were placed by relatives, listed not by name but by relationship: sister, nephews/nieces, cousins. Interesting.

In town, we walked around Iglesia de la Asunción de Nuestra Señora. Doors were locked (we’ve yet to find an open church…although we haven’t been persistent, either.) Note their lovely Mudéjar tower.

We were so glad to leave the gloominess behind, as it turned out, at the same time as we reached open terrain and commercial agriculture.

Our next stop was a Roman villa in another flat agricultural area, on a low hill. Obv, it’s well-excavated, but not open today (s’okay). The dwelling has a porticoed peristyle layout, with under-floor heating (a hypocaust system). An attached building has two mills and five beam presses, for olive oil. The tanks that received the oil have an estimated combined capacity of >17,845 liters. That suggests the villa controlled a large field area, although their mills/presses could have processed the olives of neighbors, too.

Here’re the remains of a qanat/qanāt, which is an underground Arab (supra-Mediterranean) tunnel system for moving water in arid places. They dig gently sloping tunnels for the water to flow through, with periodic vertical shafts. This is an eroded vertical, with the horizontal visible at the bottom…holding water! I was pretty excited to see this, having read about qanat systems for years.

Near the qanat, we have the best room in the house! Dinner begins at 8:15, and breakfast at 9:30. We’re still adjusting to these mealtimes, which in the evening give me an opportunity to create my posts before we eat. And here you go, you seven gentle readers!

Posted at 1:26 PM | No Comments »

Today’s first stop was a Celt-Iberian settlement, apparently called Sekaiza, on this hill, named Poyo de Mara. We know the name of the fortification from coins the Romans allowed the city to mint—and pay taxes with. I hypothesize that it controlled passage through this valley and especially…

…broad farmlands to the east and south. Here’re the remains of houses/structures on northeast shoulder of a major terrace about half-way up/down the side slope of the landform. View to SSE.

The Romans “destroyed” (conquered?) the settlement, and established their own settlement south of the hill, called Segeda. View north (see the hill?).

Here’re more foundations even further south. This was a big place, yet only occupied less than 200 years, I think.

South of Calatayud on a broad hilltop was another Celt-Iberian-then-Roman settlement, today called Valdeherrera. It was contemporaneous with Sekaiza and similarly suffered Roman degradation later, as well as becoming a Roman settlement. I think the plow zone was removed with mechanical equipment, then hand excavations began. This was a residential and artisanal area of a much larger settlement. Valdeherrera and Segeda are about 8 miles apart, as the crow flies.

Mid-afternoon, we created our own walking tour of Calatayud. Here’s the main (WNW) façade of the Basílica-Colegiata del Santo Sepulcro.

Low side passage with wooden beams supporting the rooms above.

The late-day sun made the parochial church of San Andrés, with its famous octagonal Gothic-Mudéjar tower, glow. Mudéjar refers to Christian architecture design and decorative detail modeled on Arabic styles used during Al-Andalus times, when Muslims controlled much of Iberia.

Abandoned compound.

South door of Colegiata de Santa María la Mayor, built, I think, in the 14th C, rebuilt in the 15th C.

West door of Church of San Pedro de los Francos, with its famous leaning tower.

Tiny Plaza Goya, view to west.

Monument set in astroturf honoring Covid victims and everyone for their solidarity, in Plaza Joaquín Costa. I couldn’t find out one thing about Sr. Joaquín Costa in a quick web search. Shrug.

Backlit moto.

Thank you for your patience.

Posted at 2:16 PM | No Comments »

Our hood at 11:15am; car was in the shade all morning. Brr, yet nice in the sun.

Here’s a stab at the layout of Bilbilis (sometimes with accent), a Roman fortified town on a hilltop and slopes. You can see the city wall clearly in this reconstruction. The forum is the rectangle with the red circle-numbers. It’s close to north-south, with the nose looming over the valley to the south. This location controls a major pass to the east, which today includes the important train route from Madrid to Zaragoza, and was a significant transportation corridor well before the Romans arrived.

Looking southwest across the forum and into the northeast-ward flowing Jalón River valley.

View west from the northwest corner of the forum, down into the amphitheater, which is nested into what would otherwise have been a ravine. A sign indicated there was a previous Roman structure of some sort here.

We set off to check out the eastern hill of the settlement, and looked up to see that we were disturbing a herd of grazing Iberian ibex. What a treat. The harem-boss is fourth from the left facing us, perhaps trying to stare us down. He’s got a large set of back-curving horns.

The Romans apparently built this as a cistern, and later Christians repurposed it as a chapel by creating a doorway, and no doubt adding interior features.

Back in the main part of the site, north-northwest of the forum, is a modest bath complex. This is the only one in this prosperous city—it even had a mint—due to the hilltop locations. The Romans built three cisterns to provide water just for the baths (not only for bathwater, but also for the steam-heat.)

View west of the east hill, with the cistern-church to the left and what looks like another chapel with a round window hole to the right…not discussed on the signs likely because the site managers didn’t want tourists visiting it.

We thoroughly enjoyed our hotel’s restaurant’s prix fixe lunch to recover from our Bilbilis adventure. It included a first and second course, dessert, and a choice of beverages. I chose the ¼ liter of red wine, and was surprised when a whole, full (opened) bottle (a local garnacha) was delivered…I asked, eyes wide I’m sure…she said, just drink two or three glasses, whatever you like, that’ll be fine. Okay! With tax, all of the above for €16. A fine deal! BTW, that’s my dessert, a sorbet of lemon with a few drops of vodka.

Late in the afternoon fortified from our fine luncheon (and a nap for one of our duo), we drove up to the main castle above Calatayud, formally: Castillo Mayor del Emir Ayyub ibn Aviv Lajmi, named for the official mentioned late in yesterday’s post. It’s a darned narrow castle, as that’s all there’s room for on the sinuous hill. The curved side is facing downhill to the Río Jalón valley.

Here’s the west end from dead on. Ignore the nasty lights, far more acceptable before everyone was taking so many photos and instead watching and oooh-ing and aaah-ing at the night-time display.

Here’s the view of the east end from the northeast, a massive structure against the sky—and what a sky!

Returning to our hotel for the night, we spotted these storks circling and returning to their nests (two to the lower left; one high, just below the cone). I had to ask the ever-helpful Sandra, the afternoon desk person, what the Spanish is…cigüeña, pronounced something like see-gwain-yuh, very strange spelling for Spanish. Too long for Wordle, fortunately.

Posted at 4:32 PM | 2 Comments »