The dark history behind Madeira's famous levadas

A fundamental part of Madeira's identity, the 3,100-kilometre aqueduct has proven to be more than just an ingenious and functional feat of engineering for colonising an isolated island.

Walking through thick mud in heavy rain, I picked my way down a narrow path, weaving between twisted laurel trees, with only a rickety chain-link fence keeping me from tumbling into the mist-shrouded Caldeirão Verde., A few hundred metres below us lies a steep, incredibly lush, wooded valley. We round the next bend and the thick mist clears to reveal a thundering waterfall that appears from nowhere, tumbling down a high cliff into a shallow pool as amazed hikers from the bridge watch.

The Portuguese island of Madeira, 560km off the northwest coast of Africa, Levada do Caldeirão Verde, or PR9, This trail runs like a vein through the island's beautiful landscape, and what makes it unique is that it runs alongside the island's slow-moving river. Levadas (artificial irrigation tunnels) provide awe-inspiring moments at every turn. These innovative waterways cascade down from the mountain ranges into villages, towns and cities, providing convenient navigation for hikers as well as being used for cultivation, electricity and drinking water. Even more impressive is that the waterways pass through some of Madeira's wildest forests, bypassing dizzying mountains that drop steeply into the North Atlantic.

Madeira's extensive network of levadas stretches over 3,100 km across an island that's 55 km long and 22 km wide. The first levadas date back about 600 years, and are thought to have been built by Portuguese settlers to provide water for drinking and agriculture (the word “levada” comes from the Portuguese verb “to carry”). But these aqueduct tunnels also allowed the development of a lucrative sugar cane industry; the first sugar cane mill was built in 1425, just six years after the previously uninhabited island was officially discovered.

But the levada system has proven to be more than an ingenious and functional engineering feat for colonizing an isolated island: it has shaped Madeira's natural beauty, agriculture and culture, and is deeply intertwined with its past, present and future. UNESCO World Heritage Site approval pending.

“Having existed for almost six centuries, the levadas, some ancient and some more recent, are part of the history of Madeira,” says Susana Fontinha, coordinator of the UNESCO candidacy. “They are inseparable from the identity of the Madeiran people.”

The Madeira levada system does not exist alone, SwitzerlandThe Canary Islands and Oman have also transported water in a similar way. The island's location is unique: its volcanic topography rises dramatically from the sea, forming a vast and massive mountain range with its highest peak, Pico Ruivo, at about 1,860 metres. The forests are so dense that when the 15th century navigator Alvise Cadamosto arrived on the island, “there was not a foot of ground that was not completely covered by large trees.”

It was two captains, João Goncalves Zarco and Tristan Vaz Teixeira. Sponsored by Prince Henry the Navigator When the pair discovered the uninhabited island in 1419, they named it “Illa de Madeira”, which means “island of trees” in Portuguese.

Walking along PR9 gives you a sense of the vast, unspoiled wilderness that early pioneers encountered. Nearly every inch of the path is covered in trees, and flora and fauna can be found around almost every bend, including Madeira heather, wild mountain ubeira (blueberry), and ancient laurel trees. As we walked, we passed other hikers, exchanging smiles and warning us of dangerous spots along the trail. At one point, the lead group stopped to check out a gushing stream of water off a cliff. We used our umbrella to break up the flow of water so they could pass, then I did the same.

The island's first levadas were built, with the backing of wealthy Genoese, to transport water for growing the cash crop sugar cane. Madeira's fertile soil and year-round warm climate provided ideal conditions for cultivation, and by the end of the 15th century Madeira had overtaken Cyprus to become Europe's largest sugar cane exporter. Sugar 6:1These first levadas were carved into basalt, mainly on the southern side of the island.

Some local historians believe that the levadas were built by farmers using simple hand tools (picks, hoes, and rock hammers), but others believe that much of the dangerous and laborious work was done by slaves.

He added that Madeira's system of slave sugar production served as a blueprint for sugar factories in Brazil, the Caribbean and elsewhere: “Without Madeira, there would have been no Christopher Columbus.”

Columbus later became a notorious sugar baron and brutal slave trader, but before that he married the daughter of a wealthy merchant. Sugar producers Moore believes it was on the island of Porto Santo, part of the Madeira archipelago, that he first “learned about the world of slavery, shipping and sugar.”

Because locals are so proud of their levadas, it was hard to find evidence, information, or anyone to discuss the darker side of the island's levada history, but when reading about Madeira's thriving sugar cane industry, it's hard not to imagine the people who suffered at the hands of the early capitalists.

Madeira's sugar industry reached its peak in 1506, when the island 2,500 tons Production of “white gold” had declined by 1530. An astonishing 90%The depletion of energy resources such as wood was also a factor. Between the 17th and 18th centuries, the island's levadas lost importance, probably because the island's newest industry, wine production, did not require as much water.

However, in the 19th century, the levada was once again in the spotlight. In 1835, Levada Velha do Ravasal – The first levadas built with public funds in Madeira. Later, secondary levadas provided water to land growing crops like yams, potatoes, beans and corn, improving the island's nutritional situation. During a horrible bus ride back from a hike, I spotted a tapestry of these terraces. PoiosThe glaciers, which cover the mountainside of Madeira, look just like the rice terraces of Southeast Asia.

But today the levadas have a new role to play: they're transforming Madeira's tourism landscape from a quiet winter retreat for elderly Brits to an island for young thrill-seekers eager to tackle some of the most hair-raising trails (it's advisable to hire a guide when hiking the island's dangerous tracks).

A new breed of traveller may be following in Groves's footsteps, but for local tour guide Lisa Camacho, levadas are more than just a way to rack up social media likes and get an adrenaline rush.

“[The levadas] “These represent life,” she said. “They represent the struggle of my ancestors to conquer the mountains and bring water to everyone for a living.”

Slow Commotion is a BBC Travel series that celebrates slow, spontaneous travel and encourages readers to get outside and reconnect with the world in a safe and sustainable way.