The
Orco (
Eva d'òr, that is
Water of gold in
PiedmontesePiedmontese , is a Romance language spoken by over 2 million people in Piedmont, northwest Italy. It is geographically and linguistically included in the Northern Italian group...
; ) is an
ItalianItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
riverA river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing toward an ocean, a lake, a sea or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water...
. It originates in the glaciers of the
PiedmontPiedmont is one of the 20 regions of Italy. It has an area of 25,399 km
2 and a population of about 4.4 million. The capital is Turin. The main local language is Piedmontese. Occitan is also spoken by a minority in the so-called Occitan Valleys...
ese slopes of
Gran ParadisoThe Gran Paradiso is a mountain group between the Aosta Valley and Piedmont regions of north-west Italy. The peak, the 7th highest mountain in the Graian Alps with an elevation of 4,061 m, is close to Mont Blanc on the nearby border with France, but lies entirely within Italian territory...
, and after about 90 km (56 mi) reaches the
Po RiverThe Po is a river that flows either or – considering the length of the Maira, a right bank tributary – eastward across northern Italy, from a spring seeping from a stony hillside at Pian del Re, a flat place at the head of the Val Po under the northwest...
near
ChivassoChivasso is a comune in the Province of Turin in the Italian region Piedmont, located about 20 km northeast of Turin. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 23,675 and an area of 51.3 km²....
. Its
drainage basinA drainage basin is an extent of land where water from rain or snow melt drains downhill into a body of water, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea or ocean...
is home to the most important complex of
hydropowerHydroelectricity is electricity generated by hydropower, i.e., the production of power through use of the gravitational force of falling or flowing water. It is the most widely used form of renewable energy...
in Piedmont, consisting of five dams: Agnel, Serrù, Ceresole, Piantonetto, Valsoera, and numerous
turbinesA water turbine is a rotary engine that takes energy from moving water.Water turbines were developed in the nineteenth century and were widely used for industrial power prior to electrical grids. Now they are mostly used for electric power generation...
.
The Orco is known also for its
goldGold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. It has been a highly sought-after precious metal for coinage, jewelry, and other arts since the beginning of recorded history. The metal occurs as nuggets or grains in rocks, in veins and in alluvial deposits. Gold is...
-bearing sand, extracted already in antiquity.
Discussion
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The
Orco (
Eva d'òr, that is
Water of gold in
PiedmontesePiedmontese , is a Romance language spoken by over 2 million people in Piedmont, northwest Italy. It is geographically and linguistically included in the Northern Italian group...
; ) is an
ItalianItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
riverA river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing toward an ocean, a lake, a sea or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water...
. It originates in the glaciers of the
PiedmontPiedmont is one of the 20 regions of Italy. It has an area of 25,399 km
2 and a population of about 4.4 million. The capital is Turin. The main local language is Piedmontese. Occitan is also spoken by a minority in the so-called Occitan Valleys...
ese slopes of
Gran ParadisoThe Gran Paradiso is a mountain group between the Aosta Valley and Piedmont regions of north-west Italy. The peak, the 7th highest mountain in the Graian Alps with an elevation of 4,061 m, is close to Mont Blanc on the nearby border with France, but lies entirely within Italian territory...
, and after about 90 km (56 mi) reaches the
Po RiverThe Po is a river that flows either or – considering the length of the Maira, a right bank tributary – eastward across northern Italy, from a spring seeping from a stony hillside at Pian del Re, a flat place at the head of the Val Po under the northwest...
near
ChivassoChivasso is a comune in the Province of Turin in the Italian region Piedmont, located about 20 km northeast of Turin. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 23,675 and an area of 51.3 km²....
. Its
drainage basinA drainage basin is an extent of land where water from rain or snow melt drains downhill into a body of water, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea or ocean...
is home to the most important complex of
hydropowerHydroelectricity is electricity generated by hydropower, i.e., the production of power through use of the gravitational force of falling or flowing water. It is the most widely used form of renewable energy...
in Piedmont, consisting of five dams: Agnel, Serrù, Ceresole, Piantonetto, Valsoera, and numerous
turbinesA water turbine is a rotary engine that takes energy from moving water.Water turbines were developed in the nineteenth century and were widely used for industrial power prior to electrical grids. Now they are mostly used for electric power generation...
.
The Orco is known also for its
goldGold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. It has been a highly sought-after precious metal for coinage, jewelry, and other arts since the beginning of recorded history. The metal occurs as nuggets or grains in rocks, in veins and in alluvial deposits. Gold is...
-bearing sand, extracted already in antiquity. Even today there is a certain activity, on an amateur level, searching for grains of gold.