“ Silver, sulphur and lead are found in the neighbourhood.
Lorca is the Roman Eliocroca (perhaps also the Ilorci of Pliny, N.H. iii. 3) and the Moorish Lurka. It was the key of Murcia during the Moorish wars, and was frequently taken and retaken. On the 30th of April 1802 it suffered severely by the bursting of the reservoir known as the Pantano de Puentes, in which the waters of the Sangonera were stored for purposes of irrigation (1775–1785) ; the district adjoining the river, known as the Barrio de San Cristobal, was completely ruined, and more than six hundred persons perished. ”