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Castellar de Meca

Ayora, El Valle de Cofrentes-Ayora, Valencia

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Castellar de Meca

Curiosity · Ayora, El Valle de Cofrentes-Ayora, Valencia

Castellar de Meca

An Iberian settlement that was the main site of the region of La Contestania in the municipal district of Ayora, between the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC. It covers about 15 hectares on a long hill called Mugrón de Meca, at 1,218 metres of altitude at its highest point, with evidence of occupation from the Bronze Age to the Middle Ages. It preserves cyclopean walls, numerous cisterns and houses carved into the rock, as well as Iberian, Roman and Islamic pottery. Notable is the so-called Camino Hondo, a pre-Roman engineering work with a 30% gradient that still preserves the marks left by cartwheels. Declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) in 1931, it was abandoned around the 15th century, possibly due to the Black Death.

Photo: Santisidro (Public domain)

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