The copper mines

It's Saturday first of March. Yesterday I went on a hike by myself. I went to the other sunrise point. I was told this is a very nice walk because it follows the ridge of a few chains of mountains ending at a high peak. Of course I had no directions so I just set off towards the high peak. This ended up being quite a strenuous hike, with a lot of steep climbing, and many up and downs into and out of the valleys. I did Finally reach what appeared to be the top. Of course there were a few more tops beyond that. I almost turned back, but decided to go to the next top. From here I could see the ridge that people had mentioned. It looked beautiful, so I kept climbing until I was at sunrise point, marked by a mound of stones.
The climb down was a lot easier and much more pleasant. I followed the ridge, towards the north and then it turned north north west and back to the lodge. As I climbed down I saw a convoy of about five trucks headed towards the lodge. Later the dining room was full of guests.
A picture from the hike.

When I got back, one of the guides pulled me aside and asked in whisper, jokingly; "Did you locate the treasure." This has become a joke around here as well.
Today I decided to go on a guided hike to the copper mines. We have a party of six. The guide myself and two Italian couples.  The guys work for an NGO. They work on water conservation, irrigation ect. One of the ladies used to do archeological work.
We head into the mountains. Along the path there are many dug up graves. People looking for gold. Apparently there are ancient graves everywhere in this area. Later the guide tells us that around 3500 slaves died and were burried here during the Roman period.  Apparently Romans did not like religion so anyone practicing was enslaved and brought to the copper mines. It was mostly Christians during this period. The archaeologist lady comments that given most of the graves are of slaves, the chances of hitting gold are fairly slim. The guide explains that the rocks were heated up to around 1200 degrees C, around 2200 F, before the copper separated. Originally the Romans only used high winds to generate these temperatures. Later they supplemented the wind with bamboo tubes and had the slaves continuously stoking the fire with one group breathing in while the other group was blowing. Later they used leather bellows. I also heard that pollution from this site has been found in the ice in Antarctica. This place used to be a forest, but the Romans cut down the trees for fire. Now it is a desert.
Local mushrooms

So we make it to the mines. There are deep shafts for air, quite interesting.

We stop at one of the newer shafts, dug about 40 years ago to see how much copper is still left. The guide checks for prints at the entrance of the shaft. Then he goes to the other entrance to check there. I spot some prints, I don't recognize. The guide says they look like baby hyena. Most of them have been trampled over so they are not fresh. The danger is venturing into the shaft and finding that a pack of wolves, hyenas, act are resting there for the day. The guide claims there are tigers. I think he is referring to some other kind of large cat. It does not look like tiger territory.
This activity has spooked the ladies and they do not want to go in. Luckily the two entranced are connected at two places. One is just about ten feet into the shaft. The other is further down. The ladies take the first one and go back out. The men of course being men venture further. There is a crack above and is seems like a bat took off going further up. But this is not the bat habitat. There is another mine shaft where the bats live. The guide does not likebats so he tells me we won't be going there. The shaft ends and connects to the other entrance. No lion or tiger story here.

We go outside and the guide collects some dead branches and makes a fire. We have tea and talk about various things. The walk back is slow.