The power of the water moved the millstones
These are the remains of a mill that was moved by water channelled from the summit. Its abundance offered the possibility of good milling.
The rural environments of Tenerife offer good examples of the sustainable management of natural resources and the territory. A good example is this mill that offered the possibility of transporting cereal already ground and ready for consumption, sale or exchange, right where it was harvested.
To turn its gears, there was nothing better than the nearest resource. A water pipe transported the water that was extracted from the peaks of this area to the village. Taking advantage of the arrival to this property and the force it brings by gravity, it was only a matter of passing it through the mill’s gears. Without wasting a drop, the water continued its course to fulfil the purpose for which it was extracted, the irrigation of the fields and human consumption.
The remains of this ancient mill speak of two cultures, that of cereal and that of water. Lives around them created them and made them evolve, thus achieving survival.
The south of Tenerife can well be considered a source of knowledge of ancient practices and ancestral knowledge that draw in the territory innumerable ways of sustainability. Let us learn from them because the present and the future demand them.
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