History’s Longest Conflict
Measured in eras and centuries rather than years
8 min readSep 5, 2020
In the year 1212, King Alfonso VIII of Castile, led by the Hand of God, was taking a risk. He was moving his army through a relatively unknown mountain pass at the behest of a local shepherd boy. The shepherd, Martin Alhaja, marked the fortuitous route through the mountains using cow skulls that he had from his herds of grazing animals.
