There is a chamber above the central arch that was used for a variety of purposes, including as a prison. During the 1936–1939 civil war, both sides allegedly used the prison as a torture chamber for captured opponents, killing some by throwing them from the windows to the rocks at the bottom of the El Tajo gorge.
Well that’s fun.
Been there. There is a stairway from the building at the top to the bottom of the gorge, it was used by servants to fetch water.
How do structures like that survive so long? The maintenance burden must be insane
Those ancient stone arch bridges are remarkably durable, and can survive with very little maintenance. Many large stone bridges and aqueducts were built with no mortar whatsoever, and everything held together strictly through gravity. That requires quite a bit of skill with the stone cutting, though, in order for the weight to be distributed properly. And it makes them extremely costly and time-consuming to build. Wikipedia says the bridge pictured here took 30+ years to build, and that’s after the original bridge built here collapsed a few years after being built.
built with no mortar whatsoever
The white lattice-pattern in this case seems to suggest mortar?
I don’t think there’s much upkeep cost tbh. I’d have to check but there are structures from roman times that I can assure you they weren’t maintained for around a thousand years
A different angle of this was the w11 picture recently I think? Looks really cool.
I hate that photo because Windows will try to geolocate your IP and put the closest thing in the Spotlight wallpaper feature. Thus, I’m constantly seeing that image in new Windows installs, with its stupid bloom. Goddamn it looks like the HL2: Lost Coast tech demo
Are you sure it geolocates your IP? I get a pretty wide variety of photos from around the world, it’s definitely not anything near me?
I think I have location services disabled though.
Deviantart is an interesting image host, was definitely a risky click :D
That has taken some resources to build. They have essentially filled the whole gorge with bricks.
Gorge-ous
