At the confluence of the Rivers Odiel and Tinto, Huelva is first and foremost a port and it has been a port for over 3,000 years. When the Phoenicians arrived, about 1000 BC, they noticed two things. First the copper, rusty colour of the water entering the estuary from what is now the Rio Tinto; a sure sign that metallic minerals were present further upstream, and secondly the presence of a people, the Tartessians, who were already exploiting the metals. The Tartessians were the southernmost poi ... Read More