Shepherd's Dwellings and other Covilhã, Portugal Local Custom Tips

The slopes of the Zezere valley are not too fertile, having been bulldozed by the glacier as its slowly made its way along. Consequently, one of the main uses of the valley today is for sheep grazing on its slopes. Nestled in the valley floor, we saw several of these ancient stone dwellings used by shepherds. Very often, the roofs have to be rethatched from local vegetation after the ravages of a long winter in these peaks. Scattered along the valley floor are also huge boulders deposited by the glacier as it melted itself into oblivion thousands of years ago. This photo was taken from much further away than it appears by using a zoom lens.

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