Although its water was not directly useful for men and farming lands, the river made up for it with the installation of countless mills that have remained until the arrival of electricity. 
The colour of the river Tinto's waters gave life to Niebla And it continues revitalizing it. Nowadays, the scientific research done on the fields of Physics and Astrobiology has given back prominence to the river Tinto and to Niebla. The NASA Astrobiology Institut and the INTA-CSIC Space Astrophysics and Fundamental Physics Laboratory, under the direction of the Dr. Juan Pérz Mercader, are testing the possibility of survival of living ancestral organisms. These are the extremófilos, elementary and primitive organisms that survive within environmental conditions that are extremely adverse for any other kind of creature. 
Although this research itself is significant, the fact that this area has features similar to those found in the Poles and in Mars, the Red planet, adds more interest to this research. Pérez Mercader comments "We have started a line of research to contribute to the NASA's exploration programme of Mars, which will begin within four or five years… the first thing to be done will be to make an android controlled by virtual reality techniques. We will have the first data within four or five years. But it is important to point out that the results of this programme will be available in twenty or twenty-five years from now". Part of this research is being done in the river Tinto. Niebla is called "The Red Town". It is an ancient town in which there are archaeological remains; it is located on a river called "River Tinto", whose source is in the Sierra de Aracena. Three fountains can be found in it: The first one is the source of the Tinto, which provides water; alum flows from the second source and iron-containing water flows from the third one. |
he river Tinto gave Niebla its origin and its personality. The location of the town, closely related to the river, must date back to the Early Metal Age. The minerals from the core of the province together with the farming surplus from the Condado lands could be easily taken to its waters, and would attract the eastern mediterranean cultures, Romans, Visigothics and Muslims. The river was navigable downstream and it flanked the departure for the known worlds for ages.