Sierra de Grédos 213 
entered the ancient city that boasts bygone glories, splendid 
temples, and memories of medizval magnificence, but which is 
now well, Avila. But one feature of Avila demands passing 
note—its massive walls, withstanding the centuries, full forty 
feet in height by fifteen feet broad. An hour later the Sid- 
express dashed up whistling into the station, to the genuine 
alarm of my leather-clad mountain-lads, who recoiled in fear from 
an unwonted sight. They, noticing that the officials of the train 
also spoke a foreign tongue (French), asked me if such things (1.e. 
railway trains) were “only for your Excellencies”—meaning for 
foreigners, vos-otros. 
At Paris a reassuring telegram filled me with joy indescribable, 
but in London and at York further messages intensified anxiety. 
On August 29 I reached home, and on the evening of September 3 
doubts were resolved, and the silver cord was loosed. 
The Plaza de Almanzér, with its immediate environment, 
presents a panorama of mountain-scenery unrivalled, not only in 
the whole cordillera of Grédos, but probably in all Spain—it may 
be questioned if the world itself contains a more striking landscape 
than that known as the ‘Circo de Grédos.” Briefly put, a vast 
central amphitheatre of rock—really four-square (though known 
as the ‘“‘ Circo”) in the depths of which nestle an alpine lake—is 
enclosed by stupendous rock-walls and precipices of granite; some 
of these smooth and sheer, others rugged and disintegrated or 
broken up by snow-filled gorges of intricacies that defy the power 
of pen to describe. Three of these vast mural ramparts stand 
almost rectangular, the fourth shoots out obliquely, traversing 
the abysmal enclave and all but closing the fourth side of 
its quadrilateral. The rough sketch-map at p. 141 shows the 
configuration better than written words, while the photos convey, 
so far as such can, some idea of the scenery.* 
The actual peak of Almanzér which dominates the whole 
“Circo,” as viewed from the north, culminates in a flattened 
cone, the summit being split into two huge rock-needles or 
pinnacles separated by an unfathomed fissure between. Only 
one of these needles—and that the lower—has yet been scaled. 
The loftier of the pair, though it only surpasses its fellow by a 
1 For these, as well as graphic notes on the subject, we are indebted to Sr. D. Manuel F. 
de Amezia, the most experienced and intrepid explorer of the Sierra de Grédos. 
