The Mushroom
The best-known formation: a rock on a slender stem.
Xauxa Håkan Svensson — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Dubas — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Dubas — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Turol Jones, un artista de cojones from Villanueva del Cascajal, República Independiente de Mi Casa — CC0
**Limestone formations carved by water and wind over millions of years into shapes resembling buildings and animals** — about 35 km northeast of Cuenca. ⚠ **It is not a «city»**: **a field of limestone rocks** in pine forest, **each given a name** for what it resembles: **the Mushroom**, **the Bear**, **the Roman Bridge**, **the Ships**. ✅ **The formation is purely geological**: **the limestone here formed in an ancient sea some ninety million years ago**, ⚠ **and its softer parts dissolved under acidic water** while the harder resisted — **leaving strange shapes standing**. ✅ **The route is marked and circular**, about three kilometres through pine woods. ⚠ **The place is finite**: **an hour and a half is enough** — do not expect more than it is.
The best-known formation: a rock on a slender stem.
A natural rock arch on the route.
The whole route shaded among the trees.
Valdecabras, 16146 Cuenca, Spain
**By selective dissolution — water eats the soft parts and leaves the hard, which is «karst».** ✅ **The material**: **limestone (calcium carbonate)** — ⚠ **whose decisive property is that it dissolves in slightly acidic water**; **and rainwater is slightly acidic** because it dissolves carbon dioxide from the air and soil. ✅ **The process**: **water percolates through the rock's fissures** — ⚠ **and fissures are not evenly distributed**, **and the rock itself is not uniform**: **harder and softer beds**, **and more porous parts**. ✅ **So the water dissolves what is softer and more permeable first** — **widening cracks into passages and then into voids** — **while the harder beds stand**. ⚠ **Hence the «mushroom» shapes**: **a slender base of a soft bed that dissolved**, **and a broad cap of a hard bed above it**. ✅ **Mechanical weathering finishes it**: **water freezing in cracks at night and thawing by day breaks the edges**, **and wind polishes**. ✅ **The scientific name is karst** — **and the same process makes caves and underground drainage**; ⚠ **it is what produced Matera's cisterns and the Petralona cave**.
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