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Wise Pilgrim APPThe Embalse de Proserpina is one of the oldest functioning dams in the world. Built by the Romans in the 1st or 2nd century AD to supply water to Emerita Augusta via the Acueducto de Los Milagros, the dam stretches 440 m across and rises about 21 m, impounding a reservoir of roughly 5 million cubic metres. It still holds water today, though the aqueduct it once fed has long since fallen into ruin.
The dam itself is a wall of granite ashlar with a massive earth embankment behind it -- a Roman engineering approach that has proved remarkably durable. In summer the reservoir doubles as a popular swimming spot for locals from Merida. The name Proserpina comes from an 18th-century discovery: a tombstone found nearby invoking the goddess Ataecina-Proserpina, a local deity the Romans adopted.
The whole ensemble -- dam, reservoir, and the aqueduct ruins back in Merida -- is part of the UNESCO Archaeological Ensemble of Merida.
The dam was built in two phases, both Roman, using the same structural technique. Emperor Augustus founded Emerita Augusta in 25 BC as a colony for veterans of the Cantabrian Wars, and the city's growth demanded serious water infrastructure. The Proserpina system was one of two aqueduct networks feeding the capital of Lusitania -- the other ran from the Cornalvo reservoir to the east.
The camino follows a paved road away from the embalse for 4 km before turning sharply left to leave it (just before a bridge turns right). From here it follows a path for another 3.5 km into El Carrascalejo.
