Las Trincheras, also known as Las Trincheras de Aguas Calientes, is a locality near

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...

, Venezuela. It is noted for its hot springs, which feed into the Aguas Calientes River. The name Trincheras (Spanish for "trenches") is said to derive from fortifications constructed in the colonial era.

History

Visit of Humboldt

The springs were visited by

Alexander von Humboldt Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 17696 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, naturalist, explorer, and proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He was the younger brother of the Prussian minister, ...

in 1800 during his expedition to the American tropics. They were known to the locals and Humboldt noticed that sick people were taking steam baths there. On his return to Europe, Humboldt made Las Trincheras known to science. He had recorded the temperature of the water as . There was no evidence of vulcanism in the area to explain what was heating the water. The work of François Arago on the

geothermal gradient Geothermal gradient is the rate of temperature change with respect to increasing depth in Earth's interior. As a general rule, the crust temperature rises with depth due to the heat flow from the much hotter mantle; away from tectonic plate bo ...

helped Humboldt to develop the idea that the springs obtained their heat from very deep groundwater circulation.Davis, S. ''Humboldt, Arago, and the temperature of groundwater''.

Hydrogeology Journal ''Hydrogeology Journal'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published eight times a year by Springer Science+Business Media. It was established in 1992 and is the official journal of the International Association of Hydrogeologists. The journal ...

(1999) 7: 501. https://doi.org/10.1007/s100400050223

Battle of Las Trincheras

Las Trincheras is also noted for a battle which took place in October 1813 during the Venezuelan War of Independence. The Spanish commander

Juan Domingo de Monteverde Juan Domingo de Monteverde y Rivas (born Juan Domingo de Monteverde; 2 April 1773 15 September 1832), commonly known as Domingo de Monteverde, was a Spanish soldier, governor and Captain General of Venezuela from June 1812 to 8 August 1813. Mont ...

was wounded in the battle which was won by the Independentist forces. The Spanish retreated to their base at Puerto Cabello.

Railway infrastructure

The development of the springs as a resort (''

balneario A balneario ( Portuguese spelling: balneário) is an Iberian and Latin American resort town, typically a seaside resort, and less commonly along the shores of lakes and rivers or next to hot springs. In Spain, balneario typically only refers to sp ...

'' in Spanish) was given a boost by the arrival of the Puerto Cabello and Valencia Railway in the 1880s. A station was opened at Las Trincheras, but the railway closed in the 1950s as road transport became more important in Venezuela. In the 21st century a new railway is being built connecting Puerto Cabello to La Encrucijada in

Aragua Aragua State ( es, Estado Aragua, ) is one of the 23 states of Venezuela. It is located in the north-central region of Venezuela. It has plains and jungles and Caribbean beaches. The most popular are Cata and Choroni. It has Venezuela's first n ...

. Among the tunnels on the line is the 7,702 m Bárbula Tunnel, between Las Trincheras and Naguanagua, which has been described as the longest in South America.

References

Hot springs of Venezuela Defunct railway stations in Venezuela Populated places in Carabobo Spanish colonial fortifications in Venezuela {{Carabobo-geo-stub