What Became of La Bastida?
If you like conspiracy theories, or you just like speculating about unsolved mysteries, then La Bastida, just above Moixent, is the place for you.
With its spectacular views over two valleys, one of which was the route of the Roman Via Augusta, this is a place to sit among the rubble and wonder, what happened here? Why after only 100 years did this obviously advanced civilization disappear?
We know that they traded with the Greeks and the Phoenicians because of findings here and at the nearby necropolis at Corral de Saus, and we know that they wove, ploughed, made metal objects; all within and without a walled city covering just over 4 hectares, or 8 football stadiums if you prefer.
Personally I like to think that an alien fleet arrived and carried everybody off, which is as good an explanation as any.
The other mystery is the writing of these people, which most people have encountered on the label of a bottle of Les Alcusses wine, made nearby. Nobody has managed to decipher it yet, but again, with a fertile imagination we can deduce that it probably says something like ‘archeologists mind your own business,’ or ‘extinct and proud’.
Whatever the case, these people were Iberians, and they lived here 400 years before Christ, before the Romans arrived; farming, hunting, breeding, and seeming to have had a well ordered life in their little houses, even finding time to make toys, such as the ‘Guerrero (warrior) de Moixent,’ which can now be found among other artifacts in the Pre-history museum of Valencia.
Copies of it can also be seen at the first roundabout as you enter Moixent, and at the entrance to La Bastida.
When I first visited La Bastida, over 20 years ago, it was really just a pile of stones, reached after driving up a winding track, leaving your suspension halfway down the mountainside. All that has changed; there is now a locked gate and visiting hours, the track is now a tarmac road and when you arrive the stones now resemble a village, and one house has been rebuilt in the original style, filled with household items and there are two people on hand to explain everything, as well as information panels.
Furthermore, they have created some of those special reproductions of the site for people without sight (sorry!), which you can also find beside many of Valencia’s key monuments.
Obviously, if you prefer, you can jump the gate, walk up and practise whatever druid ceremonies you are currently in favour of.
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