The Abandoned Village of Theletra - Part 1
Mind Your Step
Yes, if you walk in the front door of one house, you may well see a hole leading to the house below it. So rule #1: watch where you are walking.
Authorised Holes
Now this was a puzzle though. It is, or was, a round hole, like a portal, going to the room below. We saw quite a few of these here. I think they are designed so that buildings can be shared or partitioned at will. I certainly don't think they were primitive toilets, as you would end up pooping on the room below.
The covered hole is between the two floors you can see here. I wanted to get to the lower room to see what was below the hole, but the only possible entrance, other than squeezing through that gap, was to throw myself through a load of brambles.
Down The Hill
As you enter Theletra properly, you will come across this interesting water feature. We'll have a closer look in a bit, but look behind it. There is an awful lot of rock up there. You wouldn't want that falling down on you.
But why would it collapse? Because of gypsum. There is a lot of gypsum in the rocks around here. Indeed, it stretches from the spa spring all the way to Amargeti. We have featured it in previous blogs, as if you find an exposed area you can see some beautiful crystals. The thing about gypsum though, is that it is soluble in water. So the nice solid rock may not be as solid as you think it is. Indeed, the road from Theletra to the B7 was cut off earlier in the year, due to a massive landslide that completely blocked the entire road. Check links below for more information...
Room With A View
So building a village in the side of a hill with a lot of gypsum in it is, in hindsight, not a very good idea. However, the houses do all have outstanding views.