Mesta

The Mesta (Spanish Honrado Concejo de la Mesta, which means "Honorable Council of the Mesta") was a powerful association of sheep ranchers in the medieval Crown of Castile.

The sheep were transhumant, migrating from the pastures of Extremadura and Andalusia to León and Castile and back according to the season.

The no-man's-land (up to 100 km across) between the Christian-controlled north and Moorish-controlled south was too insecure for arable farming and was only exploited by shepherds. When the Christians conquered the south, farmers began to settle in the grazing lands, and disputes with pastoralists were common. The Mesta, set up in the late 13th century, can be regarded as the first, and most powerful, agricultural union in medieval Europe.

The export of merino wool enriched the members of the Mesta (the nobility and religious orders) who had acquired ranches during the process of Reconquista. Two of the most important wool markets were held in Medina del Campo and Burgos.

The kings of Castile conceded many privileges to the Mesta. The cañadas (traditional rights-of-way for sheep that perhaps date back to prehistoric times) are legally protected "forever" from being built on or blocked. The most important cañadas were called cañadas reales (or "royal cañadas"), because they were established by the king.

Nestos (river)

The Nestos (Greek: Νέστος) or Mesta (Bulgarian: Места), formerly the Mesta Karasu (Ottoman Turkish), is a river in Bulgaria and Greece. It rises in the Rila Mountains and flows into the Aegean Sea near the island of Thasos. It plunges down towering canyons toward the Aegean Sea through mostly metamorphic formations. At the end, the main stream spreads over the coastal plain of Chrysoupolis and expands as a deltaic system with freshwater lakes and ponds forming the Nestos delta.The length of the river is 230 km, of which 126 km in Bulgaria and the rest in Greece. It forms some gorges in Rila and Pirin.

The Mesta's longest tributary is the Dospat River (Bulgarian: Доспат; Greek: Δεσπάτης, Despatis). The banks of the river are covered mainly by deciduous trees that extend into halfway between Bulgaria and Greece where it forms the modern boundary of Greek Macedonia and Thrace, as well as the boundary between the Kavala and the Xanthi regional units, having first crossed the Drama regional unit. The river later forms a delta to the north where swamplands, wetlands and a lagoon once existed except in the east.

Mesta (company)

Mesta AS is a Norwegian government enterprise delivering services within construction and civil engineering of roads. The company was created in 2003 when the construction division of Statens Vegvesen was demerged to become a separate limited company that has to compete for each contract. The company is owned by the Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry and has its headquarters at Lysaker outside Oslo.

During the summer of 2008 the company experienced a restructuring of the entire organizational structure. The company now consists of eight fully owned subsidiaries: Geo Survey, Eiendom (Property), Entreprenør (Entrepreneur), Asfalt (Asphalt), Stein (Rock), Elektro (Electro), Drift (Operation), and Verksted (Maintenance). The corporate HQ is positioned in Oslo. The subsidiaries are structured as own entities and are limitied companies (AS in Norway)