This crater is located in the place usually known as Cabeço de Meca or Cabeço de Santa Quitéria, and is classified as having been a volcanic chimney. This chimney, which was operated as a quarry for the extraction of basaltic material for years, is currently unprotected, as a result of the impasse caused by the PARP, leaving visible the industrial structures that support this extraction, such as a lake in the center of its crater, also a consequence of the same exploitation.
At the top of Mount Mecca, there was once, I believe it was still working in the 90s, a basalt quarry. it has been closed and has barbed wire to prevent people from entering. As I found out, there were people who went there to bathe, but there was someone who cut part of that fence, and you can get there by bike. The panorama is amazing...