The project: Ses Aigos is a valley about 5 kms inland,in the South Eastern region of the island of Mallorca. It is the name registered on the local map of the area and it means these 'waters'.It is a way of turning an impoverished valley into a an abundant paradise the way areas of the earth were before man interfered.

It consists of a number of terraces constructed from dry stone walls, planted with a huge variety of fruit trees and vines. There is water deposito teeming with fish and wildlife. A solar panel supplies the energy. There are numerous resources such as ancient tunnels constructed by descendents of the Moorish culture. These are detailed at this site...however the project is greater than the sum of its parts. Because each part plays an intrinsic part of the whole

The Moorish people understood the importance of the conservation of water and erosion control. Their mathematical genius encompassed the beauty of sacred geometry principles which embraced the natural rules of nature. However modern urban living divorces us from these influences and ugliness ensues.

The project in essence is a trail blazing idea that has a purpose beyond proving the pioneering methods work, although clearly they do work! It is about humans beings looking at life in a completely different way......not being part of a mind set that modern society imposes upon us. The cycles of life and nature are always evolving and never static and the project is a way of looking at the way we approach the myriad facets of nature. The project is a means to free ourselves up to think to think of ourselves as a part of this evolving process. A way to become aware and understand the excitement of the unknown. All of life is a continuous challenge.

Unfortunately when something beautiful is created either naturally or by man, it becomes a property developer's dream. All of which serves to threaten the project.

"During a 20 year sailing voyage of discovery around the med, with HOMER'S The Iliad & The Odyssey of Odysseus, as historic company, it became apparent just how much of our environment had been destroyed since that time.

The size of the timber beams at the Palace of Knossos indicate just how giant the forests used to be. Since then we have lost our links with ourselves and with nature. It is only by re-establishing these links will some of us stand any chance of survival. I became determined to put back this loss by returning to the earth, a forest of trees, but ones that produced food of every different variety. To relearn spiritually what ancient cultures knew but, civilized man, in his arrogance, has discarded."......Gordon Greig

"Ses Aigos is a unique project that has been taking place quietly for 20 years in a hidden valley in the hills of Mallorca,Spain. Inspired by a man with a clear vision of a future where many people would embrace an entirely new way of living at one with the earth. Details of the project follow, but in summary; Gordon Greig has pioneered an holistic way of life, facilitated by a clever blend of ancient wisdom alongside modern technology. He has a wealth of knowledge about the symbiotic relationship of all the processes necessary to sustain man's comfort and health, whilst at the same time sustaining the health of the planet. To give you just one example: The solar panel on his land is not just about energy supply, it is crucial to the oxygenating of water for the edible fish, irrigation of the land, retention of ground water and the fresh water supply. The same applies for the trees the tunnels. Remove any one of the functioning elements and the entire system becomes imbalanced. Each part is fundamental to the whole!
Gordon can speak/teach at length about how each of the life processes share an intrinsic relationship to the whole, and how if this is understood, it can result in a sustainable way of life that requires minimal effort for maximum results. Nature is complex and 'one' whilst man sub divides things and presently has become obsessed with solving problems and working hard at 'doing' things, which has vastly interfered with the delicate balance. Gordon believes that if an event can be seen in its relationship to the whole, it can be realized to be a solution merely masquerading as a problem" ....Lynne Sears

FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT SES AIGOS

This is what Gordon has to say about it......

I bought the valley some twenty years ago in Mallorca, Spain. It was derelict, dry and generally in poor condition with erosion well in evidence. It was obvious that it had once been fertile. The three families I bought the land from had left this land in the 1960's because their water had dried up. They moved to lower and more water-rich land. These people were obviously of Moorish descent due to the colour of their eyes, hair and skin. This started me thinking. The valley lay below an old, now abandoned Moorish Castle. It seemed obvious that this small valley had once provided for this Castle. So, what had happened? The valley had once been well-terraced and in these terraces were tunnels, approximately half a metre wide by one metre high, and in which water once ran. Now, they were dry. At the top terrace was a large well, some 40ft deep with about a constant 4 inches of water at the bottom. Where had the water gone? It has taken me 10 years to solve this puzzle.

Firstly though, to start the process of regeneration, I made use of a filtration well at the bottom levels of the valley. This deposit held about 50 tons of water only, but refilled after heavy rain. This happens only in autumn and spring and is not much. A solar pumping system was installed to pump this water up to the top of the valley and into storage tanks from which a gravity fed irrigation system was taken. (For further information see SOLAR POWER).Then the process of tree planting began. Once this was up and running, it was back to, where was the water? The families left this area in the 1960's. At about this time Mallorca was beginning to experience tourism and an upgrading of lifestyles. All cooking on the island was done with charcoal and hence demand increased. The hills surrounding the valley were owned by charcoal burners. Their rings were everywhere. The hillsides are now bare of trees and the deforesting of these hills coincided within the same decade of the drying up of the springs.So, I now had a possible reason for the water loss. Now to explore all these tunnels to find out how it used to work and why now it didn't.

We have to go back in time to see this valley as it once was when the Moors were there 600+ years ago. The Moors were great water engineers and this is evident in the layout and construction of these tunnels. However, in my opinion, these tunnels were once above ground.

This valley would originally have been heavily wooded, with a spring at the top. This spring had cut out, over the centuries, from the form of this area, and ran as a small brook at its center. The Moors would have cleared the valley bottom, used the rocks to form small terraces of forest soil and then harnessed the spring. To find the source of the spring they cut, by hand, down into the rock where the spring was until they reached the porous levels the water was travelling along. 40ft down in this case.

Having found the water base, they then expanded this hole into a large well and connected from this small canals feeding the various levels of the valley. They then allowed the water level to rise back to its original level and then overflow into these canals via controlled outlets and walls. Each canal supplies one terrace and then moves on down to the next level. The canals have been cut into solid rock and each one follows the rock contours of the valley sides. I have now crawled into most of these tunnels, not a very pleasant experience. In one tunnel I came across a blank wall with water seeping from it. By tapping the roof to communicate with a friend outside we were able to locate its position. We then dug down at this spot until about 3 metres down we reached the tunnel roof. We then went down into this tunnel and found a much larger tunnel, appx 20ft long by 2ft wide by 8ft high. This had a gravel bed some 3 ft deep which had calcified over and the water entering this area was seeping out sideways. The blank wall I had encountered was of a later construction due to the materials used and the form of construction.

This was obviously constructed at a later date to block off the water flows to try to increase the water at source. The gravel bed and larger tunnel we exposed was, I believe, part of a water flood control and filtration system.

To cut a long story short, there is a system in these terraces of flood control, water storage and controlled flows for irrigation.

Now to the main well. I entered this vast narrow cavern, via one of the tunnels and started to clear debris from the bottom. To my surprise clear water bubbled up. Here was the spring still working, but the water was just seeping away because the controls had been removed by the previous owners in their search for water. The water had come back but nobody knew it. Why? I next went up the valley side to look at the mountain slopes. Very small trees were in evidence, 3inches high. Not enough to make any difference. However, there were many species of regeneration plants in existence. Shrubs, grasses etc. Part of a natural cycle of regeneration. Amongst these plants are now large pockets of humus rich soil. All sumps for water collection. Here is an area in the early stages of regeneration. Forty years on. Water was on its way back. We have solved a puzzle and will now record and observe. What has taken nature 40 years, I think, with careful planning, man could achieve in 10. (For further information see WATER, CANALS AND TUNNELS)

The whole project has taken one man (me), with some help from my family, 20 years to reach this stage. It has been achieved with very little money and at times only 4-5 weeks of work per year. Not a sob story, but an indication of what could be achieved by committing groups or communities.

The biggest problem, once a system like this one is established, is that someone will want to live there. This is normally where the balances start to be destroyed when we decide to urbanize, with no sensitivity to the needs of the land. We have design plans to deal with effluent, gray water disposal, heating of houses from the sun, hot water from the sun, heat storage in rock tanks, cooling systems via tunnels etc. Finance will dictate progress on these items so we have to learn not to interfere too much.