Peru & Bolivia
Photo Gallery 14:
Potosí, Bolivia (1)
Photos by Adam Jones
I had been dreaming of visiting Potosí for years. It is the world's
highest city, at 4,090 metres. At its peak in the 17th and 18th centuries,
Potosí was the second-largest city in the world after Naples, with 160,000
inhabitants (at a time when Paris had around 90,000). The reason was the
Cerro Rico silver mines (see first photo). Today, tin and lead accompany
silver, and the Cerro is still worked, as you'll see in the next gallery.
I.
The Cerro Rico
Following the discovery of silver in the mid-sixteenth century,
this single hill largely paid for the profligacy and foreign wars of the
Spanish crown for some two hundred years. Millions of native Indians and
African slaves were forced to work in horrific conditions, making the Cerro
perhaps the world's single biggest graveyard: anywhere from one million
to eight million forced labourers perished in the mines, or from silicosis
and other diseases soon after. By some estimates, the mines killed seven out
of every ten people who worked there. Time for a Potosí holocaust museum, perhaps?
II.
The intense late-afternoon light at this altitude produced one
of my favourite photos of the trip.
III.
A vigorous and vibrant city, with exceptional street life.
IV.
In the museum of the Casa Real de Moneda (1)
Where all that silver was minted into ingots and coins.
V.
In the museum of the Casa Real de Moneda (2)
Child mummies from the eighteenth or nineteenth century.
VI.
The Miners' Market, Potosí
Preparing to go "down the mine" (see next gallery)
