In the 16th cen­tu­ry, this area was regard­ed as the world‘s largest indus­tri­al com­plex. The extrac­tion of sil­ver ore relied on a series of hydraulic mills. The site con­sists of the indus­tri­al mon­u­ments of the Cer­ro Rico, where water is pro­vid­ed by an intri­cate sys­tem of aque­ducts and arti­fi­cial lakes, the colo­nial town with the Casa de la Mon­e­da the Church of San Loren­zo sev­er­al patri­cian hous­es and the bar­rios mitayos, the areas where the work­ers lived.