Water mines in the mountains in central Portugal. Many are said to be from Moorish times. It’s a long tradition, suffice it to say, along with the elevated ston

Water mines in the mountains in central Portugal. Many are said to be from Moorish times. It’s a long tradition, suffice it to say, along with the elevated stone aquaducts lining the nadirs of each valley. The one on my old land there was dug by an elderly friends father about 80-90 years ago with a pickaxe. It took about a year and a half of full-time work. (Who fed them during that time? Was it a village funded effort?) It’s allegedly about 150m deep, which is terrifying to imagine, as it’s like 1.6m tall and maybe 80-90cm wide or something and the bottom is full of water. I never dared wade in more than about 5m, it’s sorta crouching person height and it’s basically just scraped out of the schist, although there are pockets of a hard white quartz of some kind that I can attest to the difficulty in breaking, one dislodges large chunks of it instead.