Sunny Walkers 60222: Sierra de La Plata - Silla del Papa y Las Canchorreras

A truly beautiful hike where you need to spend a little time discovering the hidden gems of history in abundance throughout this hike.
Some information as follows:

La Silla del Papa
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La Silla del Papa is an archaeological site consisting of an oppidum of Punic or Bastulo-Punic origin located in the Spanish municipality of Tarifa (Cádiz). It is located on the highest peak of the Sierra de la Plata, within the Estrecho Natural Park, near the Bolonia cove. According to the researchers, it corresponds to the ancient bastula city of Bailo, precursor of Baelo Claudia.


La Silla del Papa is located on Pico Plata, at 457 meters above sea level, the highest point of the Sierra de la Plata , extending towards its northwest slope. From there you can control the Bolonia cove and the Barbate and Zahara de los Atunes coves , as well as the interior area up to Medina Sidonia . For all this, it could be said that it occupied a place of great strategic importance and territorial control.

The oppidum Silla del Papa is located in the highest point of the Sierra de la Plata, at 457 m. high, four kilometers north of the Roman municipality of Baelo Claudia.

An oppidum (from the Latin n. oppidum, pl. oppida: high place, fortification) is a term that designates a high place, a hill or plateau, whose natural defenses have been reinforced by human intervention. The oppida are known thanks to the descriptions made by Julius Caesar in " Commentarii de bello Gallico" (commentaries on the Gallic wars). In the description of it, it said that its walls are made of earth and stone, reinforced with wooden sleepers joined perpendicularly by long iron pegs.

The first settlements of the Pope's Chair date back to the 10th and 9th centuries BC. C. Archaeological investigations reveal that later there was a city of Bastulo-Punic origin called Bailo that was abandoned in the time of Augustus, at the end of the 1st century BC. C., to found the city of Baelo Claudia on the coast.

The German historian Adolf Shulten believes that the Mons Belleia was in the Pope's Chair where the democrat general Sertorius gathered his Lusitanian allies after crossing the strait, supporting him in his rebellion against the dictator Sulla in 80 BC. C. When he was defeated, Rome forced the inhabitants of the oppidum to move to the coast and build a new city where before there was only a salting factory.

We had already visited the Pope's Chair in 2009, accessing its south face through the road that passes through the Cueva del Moro , now we will do it through its eastern slope to enter the old city through one of its secondary accesses, taking advantage of the existence of an oblique fault to the rocky corridor where it is located.

Las Canchorreras
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In the extensive municipality of Tarifa there were numerous urban centers, which, being far from Tarifa or Facinas, had to have the means to supply themselves, at least in basic products.

One of these nuclei was located a few kilometers from the Almarchal, on the western slope of the Sierra de la Plata, at the foot of the Pope's Chair, in the area known as Las Canchorreras.

According to the 1878 census, there were 110 people in this town, most of them day laborers, some goatherds and a barber.

Although today there are still farms in the area, the old town has been abandoned, partly due to the transfer of its inhabitants to the nearby village of Almarchal. Significant was the emigration at the end of the sixties to Tarragona for the construction of the Vandellós nuclear power plant.

The remains of the settlement of Las Canchorreras allow us to recognize how these small urban centers were organized, their construction techniques and the areas dedicated to economic activity.

(Taken from the article «Old town of Las Canchorreras» published in Puerta de Jerez

Dolmen
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A dolmen is a type of single-chamber megalithic tomb, usually consisting of two or more vertical megaliths supporting a large flat horizontal capstone or "table". Most date from the early Neolithic (4000–3000 BC) and were sometimes covered with earth or smaller stones to form a tumulus. Small pad-stones may be wedged between the cap and supporting stones to achieve a level appearance. In many instances, the covering has weathered away, leaving only the stone "skeleton" of the mound intact.