Cerro Rico

Potosi: The Silver Mine that Changed the World
The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered
The Silver Mountain was mentioned in another video I posted last week, Why Is Latin America still Poor, and it got me curious, so this morning I did a little digging. This video covers it pretty well. 

He doesn't mention the elevation of this place. The town of Potosi, Bolivia, is at 13,400 feet and the top of the mountain Cerro Rico is 15,689 feet, though it is steadily falling due to internal collapses of old mining galleries. As far as I am concerned air stops at 10,000 feet, so anyone living in this town must be a real life spaceman, a person who can survive where there isn't any air.