Mount Oiz is one of the most popular summits of Biscay

Biscay

Biscay is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the Basque Country, heir of the ancient Lord of Biscay. Its capital city is Bilbao...

 in the Basque Country

Basque Country (autonomous community)

The Basque Country is an autonomous community of northern Spain. It includes the Basque provinces of Álava, Biscay and Gipuzkoa, also called Historical Territories....

 (Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

). Its summits form part of a long range that feeds several rivers: Ibaizabal

Ibaizabal

The river Ibaizabal drains southeastern Biscay to the Estuary of Bilbao. It is 43 km long from its source at Elorrio to the Nervion, and it passes by the towns of Durango and Amorebieta and joins the Nervion river at Basauri. Both rivers run then together for a short length until they merge...

, Artibai, Lea, Oka and Deva

Deva River

The Deva is a river in Northern Spain, flowing through the Autonomous Communities of Cantabria and Asturias until it joins the Cares River and flows into the Atlantic Ocean, in the Bay of Biscay, where they form the Tina Mayor estuary which is the natural border between Asturias and Cantabria....

 in Gipuzkoa all of them running to the Bay of Biscay

Bay of Biscay

The Bay of Biscay is a gulf of the northeast Atlantic Ocean located south of the Celtic Sea. It lies along the western coast of France from Brest south to the Spanish border, and the northern coast of Spain west to Cape Ortegal, and is named in English after the province of Biscay, in the Spanish...

.

Description

The mountain is clearly distinguished from its surroundings, mostly because of the large antenna

Antenna (radio)

An antenna is an electrical device which converts electric currents into radio waves, and vice versa. It is usually used with a radio transmitter or radio receiver...

 and the wind turbines in the top.

Its location in the middle of the province and its height provides great views from the summit, from the nearby sea to the surrounding mountains.

There are still patches of oak

Oak

An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...

s and beeches on the mountain, but the higher zones are covered by huge pastures where sheep, horse

Horse

The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...

s and cows graze. There are wild deer

Deer

Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. Species in the Cervidae family include white-tailed deer, elk, moose, red deer, reindeer, fallow deer, roe deer and chital. Male deer of all species and female reindeer grow and shed new antlers each year...

 and boar

Boar

Wild boar, also wild pig, is a species of the pig genus Sus, part of the biological family Suidae. The species includes many subspecies. It is the wild ancestor of the domestic pig, an animal with which it freely hybridises...

s. Birds are shared with the nearby Urkiola

Urkiola

Urkiola is a mountain range of the Basque mountains in Biscay near Durango, in the western Basque Country, Spain. The range's highest mountain is Anboto...

 natural park.

History and Legend

Oiz is one of the most important places of the history of Biscay and the Basque Country

Basque Country (historical territory)

The Basque Country is the name given to the home of the Basque people in the western Pyrenees that spans the border between France and Spain on the Atlantic coast....

. During the prehistory

Prehistory

Prehistory is the span of time before recorded history. Prehistory can refer to the period of human existence before the availability of those written records with which recorded history begins. More broadly, it refers to all the time preceding human existence and the invention of writing...

 it was inhabited by shepherd

Shepherd

A shepherd is a person who tends, feeds or guards flocks of sheep.- Origins :Shepherding is one of the oldest occupations, beginning some 6,000 years ago in Asia Minor. Sheep were kept for their milk, meat and especially their wool...

s that left an important legacy of megalithic monuments. Later they moved to the valleys where they left the necropolis

Necropolis

A necropolis is a large cemetery or burial ground, usually including structural tombs. The word comes from the Greek νεκρόπολις - nekropolis, literally meaning "city of the dead"...

 of San Juan de Momoitio.

Oiz is one of the "Hornblower Mountains"http://www.hiru.com/es/bidaiak/erreportaiadidaktikoak/83771 from where the assembly of the Lordship of Biscay

Lord of Biscay

Lord of Biscay is a historical title of the head of state of the autonomous territory of Biscay, Basque Country.- History :The first known Lord of Biscay , Íñigo López "Ezkerra" was a lieutenant of the Kingdom of Pamplona , and this was until the Castilian conquest of Gipuzkoa in 1200...

 was gathered in the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

. This gathering was done by lighting fires and blowing into horn

Blowing horn

The blowing horn or winding horn is a sound device by and large shaped like a horn or actually a cattle or other animal horn arranged to blow from a hole in the pointed end of it...

s.

The legend says that also here Mari

Mari (goddess)

Mari, Mari Urraca, Anbotoko Mari and the possibly distinct Murumendiko Dama was a goddess — a lamia — of the Basques. She was married to the god Sugaar...

, "The Lady of Anboto

Anboto

Anboto is a limestone mountain of the Western Basque Country, the highest peak of the Urkiola range and not far from the pass of Urkiolamendi between Durango and Vitoria-Gasteiz.- Description :...

", has a dwelling. Tradition says that every seven years Mari goes from Anboto

Anboto

Anboto is a limestone mountain of the Western Basque Country, the highest peak of the Urkiola range and not far from the pass of Urkiolamendi between Durango and Vitoria-Gasteiz.- Description :...

 to Oiz, and the weather

Weather

Weather is the state of the atmosphere, to the degree that it is hot or cold, wet or dry, calm or stormy, clear or cloudy. Most weather phenomena occur in the troposphere, just below the stratosphere. Weather refers, generally, to day-to-day temperature and precipitation activity, whereas climate...

 and the good or bad crops

Crop (agriculture)

A crop is a non-animal species or variety that is grown to be harvested as food, livestock fodder, fuel or for any other economic purpose. Major world crops include maize , wheat, rice, soybeans, hay, potatoes and cotton. While the term "crop" most commonly refers to plants, it can also include...

 depend on where she is.

On February 19, 1985, Iberia Airlines Flight 610

Iberia Airlines Flight 610

On 19 February 1985, Iberia Flight 610 crashed into a television antenna at 3356 feet which was on the summit of Mount Oiz in Vizcaya near Bilbao. The flight took off from Madrid-Barajas Airport destined for Bilbao Airport. All 141 passengers and 7 crew died in the crash...

 from Madrid to Bilbao

Bilbao Airport

Bilbao Airport is a public airport located north of Bilbao, in the municipality of Loiu, in the Basque Country. It is the most important airport of the Basque Country and northern Spain, with 4,172,903 passengers on 2008...

hit the antenna and crashed in the north slopes of Oiz, causing the death of all passengers and crew, 148 people overall.