Zegama
Zegama, popularly known as "The shadow of Aizkorri", is a town and municipality in the Goierri region of the province of Gipuzkoa, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country, northern Spain.
Zegama's main characteristic is its natural location as the last Gipuzkoan town up the valley of river Oria, very close to the Aizkorri-Aratz Natural Park, in which the highest mountain in the Basque Autonomous Community can be found, the popular Aizkorri summit (1,528 m), located at the same name mountain range towering over the whole area. The Oria river, the longest one in the province of Gipuzkoa, rises in several springs and their corresponding streams flowing down the dramatic slopes of the valley that merge in a main stream before the nucleus of the town. The southern Otzaurte hamlet (IPA: /o'tsaurte/) stands on the dividing line of the waters running onto the Mediterranean watershed and those flowing north to the Atlantic through the Oria river.
The historic Way of St James, namely the stretch called the Tunnel Route, passes through the town, the municipality and the Park since the Middle Ages. Pilgrims exit the town heading south up the slopes, so reaching the San Adrian tunnel after 5 km, where backpackers and hikers may gain access to the plains of Alava, the Urbia fields or the summits of the rugged Aizkorri mountain range.
Zegama's main characteristic is its natural location as the last Gipuzkoan town up the valley of river Oria, very close to the Aizkorri-Aratz Natural Park, in which the highest mountain in the Basque Autonomous Community can be found, the popular Aizkorri summit (1,528 m), located at the same name mountain range towering over the whole area. The Oria river, the longest one in the province of Gipuzkoa, rises in several springs and their corresponding streams flowing down the dramatic slopes of the valley that merge in a main stream before the nucleus of the town. The southern Otzaurte hamlet (IPA: /o'tsaurte/) stands on the dividing line of the waters running onto the Mediterranean watershed and those flowing north to the Atlantic through the Oria river.
The historic Way of St James, namely the stretch called the Tunnel Route, passes through the town, the municipality and the Park since the Middle Ages. Pilgrims exit the town heading south up the slopes, so reaching the San Adrian tunnel after 5 km, where backpackers and hikers may gain access to the plains of Alava, the Urbia fields or the summits of the rugged Aizkorri mountain range.
Map - Zegama
Map
Country - Spain
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| Flag of Spain | |
Anatomically modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 42,000 years ago. The ancient Iberian and Celtic tribes, along with other pre-Roman peoples, dwelled the territory maintaining contacts with foreign Mediterranean cultures. The Roman conquest and colonization of the peninsula (Hispania) ensued, bringing the Romanization of the population. Receding of Western Roman imperial authority ushered in the migration of different non-Roman peoples from Central and Northern Europe with the Visigoths as the dominant power in the peninsula by the fifth century. In the early eighth century, most of the peninsula was conquered by the Umayyad Caliphate, and during early Islamic rule, Al-Andalus became a dominant peninsular power centered in Córdoba. Several Christian kingdoms emerged in Northern Iberia, chief among them León, Castile, Aragon, Portugal, and Navarre made an intermittent southward military expansion, known as Reconquista, repelling the Islamic rule in Iberia, which culminated with the Christian seizure of the Emirate of Granada in 1492. Jews and Muslims were forced to choose between conversion to Catholicism or expulsion, and eventually the converts were expelled through different royal decrees.
Currency / Language
| ISO | Currency | Symbol | Significant figures |
|---|---|---|---|
| EUR | Euro | € | 2 |
| ISO | Language |
|---|---|
| EU | Basque language |
| CA | Catalan language |
| GL | Galician language |
| OC | Occitan language |
| ES | Spanish language |