Monday, June 18, 2018

What Else Can We Tear Down?

The Mojácar Tourist Councillor (and probably future mayor) has come up with a fresh wheeze.
We already have Mojácar pueblo turned into a Disneyville with such attractions as the Night's Longest Kiss, and the Night We Turn some of the Lights Out, and the Rockabilly Night (Mojácar remembers with pleasure the old Swingin' Fifties).
There are indeed more concerts, festivals and attractions in the village to keep even the most miserable souvenir stall-owner grinning through the season.
Mojácar Playa, with those pesky beach-bars soon to be closed down and those wretched teenagers sent packing, will shortly become a hot version of a Butlin's Holiday Camp (where are the Red Jackets when you need one?).
Now it's Old Mojácar's turn.
The venerable old mountain is to be excavated at the invitation of the Town Hall's Emmanuel Agüero together - according to Nova Ciencia - with the Fundación Valparaiso.
I remember Paul Becket, who was an archaeologist and creator of the Fundación Valparaiso, buying Old Mojácar with my Dad precisely to stop the local people from screwing up the venerable (and artificial) hill, which was built in the earliest of times and has been the source of Mojácar's magic ever since.
Mojácar, which comes from Muxacra (the Arab name), which comes in turn from Mons Sacra, the Roman name: the Holy Mount.
So, what's the plan? Fifty-five volunteers join some archaeologists from the university of Granada from July 2nd to open up the mountain to see what's left (it's been sacked by hundreds of generations of local people). The Town Hall will be sure to organise kiddywinky activities - allow me to quote from Nova Ciencia: '...The children will also be the protagonists in Mojácar (the first Andalusian municipality to be certified as a family tourism destination), as for several days the smallest children will be able to visit and get to know the site, as well as the work of the archaeologists. There will be guided tours, in Spanish and English, talks, activities such as "archaeologist for a day" or "ceramics workshop", being just some of the activities that lovers of culture and archaeology can enjoy in Mojácar throughout the month of July...'.
The Town Hall has sent out a press notice which more or less quotes the article from the Nova Ciencia, but adds (to rub in the tourist angle) '...Mojácar, one of the "Most Beautiful Villages in the World", will be adding to its many attractions as a tourist destination the opportunity of an archaeological visit to what will surely become one of the most interesting sites in the province of Alméria...'.


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