Most head to the party capital of the world for its nightly treasures, but Ibiza has just as many natural gems to offer during the day.

1492 proved a seminal year for exploration both upward and outward. As Christopher Columbus so famously sailed the ocean blue, France’s Mont Aiguille had been discovered for climbing. From then on, the French Pre-Alp plateau was considered the birthplace of mountaineering.

For a while, the black death’s etiology was uncertain. But thanks to ever-improving technology, scientists have determined that the plague originated in a Chinese rodent population in the form of the rod-shaped Yersinia pestis, which likely made its way to Europe via the Silk Road and merchant ships between 1346 and 1353. Science jargon aside, the plague took with it between 75 and 200 million people, or at least one-third of Europe’s population at the time. It took over 150 years for all of Europe to recover from a mere bacteria, but not without monumental social, political and economic upheavals.