Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin
The Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula comprises the largest group of rock art sites found in Europe.
They consist of 758 prehistoric sites in eastern Spain and represent a distinct rock art tradition. They are mostly exposed in the open air. These rock art sites form an exceptionally large group; the figures are relatively small in size and depict scenes from the transition stage from hunter-gatherer to sedentary farmer.
Community Perspective: We think the number of locations is a joke (“If you need 758 locations to assert OUV you can imagine how weak each one of them must be.”). If you want to visit some without the need for a specialist guided tour, check out the Sierra de Albarracín (as described by Els) or Monte Arabí (visited by Clyde) or El Cogul (Alexander) or Pedra de les Orenetes near Barcelona (Caspar, on public transport) or La Sarga (Watkinstravel, free tours on Sunday). Most of the rock art can only be “appreciated” from behind a fence. Hubert did a guided tour to the Abrigo Grande de Minateda.
Map of Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin
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CugelVance
I visited the pedra de les orenetes on tuesday,the 28th of may. I am no aficionado of rock art sites. Thats for sure! However,the pedra de les orenetes site really suprised me in a very positive way.
But first things first I took the bus nr.500 at exactly 8.45 near the metro station "Artigues/Sant Adria in Barcelona. The bus was punctual and on the minute. Luckily, I arrived at the supposed bus stop around 15 minutes earlier.....well, I couldnt find the bus stop...it was not there where it was supposed to be according to google.I asked some locals but nobody had an idea where that bus stop could be.I was running out of time when I discovered the thin pole with the timetable of the bus 500.That pole was the bus stop. Actually,it is only 50 meters away from the place indicated by google,but bloody difficult to find as the time table can only be seen if you walk on the street and not from the side walk.What is more confusing is that just 20 meters away is a big bus stop with a covered waiting area that is served by many bus lines. Look out for the stand of a bike rental company with their bright red bikes....the pole/bus stop is between that bike stand and the street. Easy to find if you know what you're looking for. As for the bus its colour(blue) is quite different from the usual city buses+quite an old bus. It took me around 40 minutes to get from Barcelona to the bus stop" Entrada Urb.Les Roquetes".....I was the only passenger for almost all the way to aforementioned bus stop........the bus nr.500 is a kind of ghost bus: weird route,almost nobody knows its existence,no passengers. Anyway! I made it! I was even able to buy some croissant and a bottle of water in a nearby bakery before my bus arrived.
The suburban settlement of Les Roquetes is remote, inhabited predominantly by the upper middle class/lower upper class, every house has an alarm system, you don't see anyone in the streets, there are no shops, bars or cafes there. But there are dogs everywhere, I was barked at every fence, sometimes by 3 dogs at the same time. Annoying!
First I visited the dolmen de Can Gol 1 and then the Can Col 2. Nothing exciting....to be honest....quite disappointing and not really worth the trip by bus from Barcelona to Les Roquetes and then the steep way up to the dolmen.However, when I reached the " Pedra de les Orenetes"I was overwhelmed by the sight of that rock..what an enchanting, magical and otherworldly place, a rock surrounded by smaller rocks. Nobody was there...I was the only human being out there.I walked around the rock,took some picutures,and then climbed up the rock to sit down there and enjoyed the splendid view as well as the silence....almost meditative...even me, a human being from the 21 century,was struck by the rock's size,by its beautiful surroundings....... by the palpably magical aura of that place.
I looked for the two drawings which were supposed to be found on the rock according to the nearby information board. I couldnt find a single one....apart from some graffiti.
The entire area around the rock is bewitching so that I started walking around and forgot the time of my return bus completely. As soon as I remembered it I had to run to get my bus which was supposed to be at the bus at 11.25.....I arrived at the bus stop at 11.35.....waited there for around 20 minutes and then decided to walk to Vilanova de Valles from where buses(bus 596) run more frequently to Granollers as the next bus serving the les roquetes bus stop would be there at around 13.30. I wasnt in the mood to wait more than 1,5 hours at a desolate bus stop nor did I have the energy to go up the steep streets of les roquetes again. According to google I had to walk around 30 minutes to reach Vilanova....I reached it in around 17 minutes and had still time to have a needed coffee in the bar near the bus stop there. From Granollers there are frequent suburban trains to Barcelona as well as to other destinations. I headed to Terrasa,another small city outside Barcelona,where I visited the tentative unesco site "the episcopal see of egara and its pictorial decoration".
In summary, I can say that the effort and time to visit the rock of Orenetes was worth it. A fantastic rock in a fantastic place.I am still not an aficionado of rock art though.
Hubert
How to find among 758 sublocations those that are worth visiting? The problem is not only the large number, but also the fact that many sites are very difficult to access or are not accessible at all. And those that are accessible differ widely in the quantity and quality/visibility of the paintings. The information on the UNESCO website is not very helpful. Nevertheless, I was able to identify a few potentially worthwhile locations for my visit on Easter weekend 2024. And one of them, the Abrigo Grande de Minateda (not described in previous reviews), offered a guided tour that fitted into my itinerary.
I visited the Abrigo Grande de Minateda (photo) on a half-day trip from Elche. It is located around 100 kilometres east of Elche, a little over an hour by car. But the drive is definitely worth it. The paintings are on a panel about ten metres wide and one metre high: horses and bulls, but also many human figures. The paintings depict hunting scenes, possibly also dances or ritual ceremonies, but the interpretation is not always clear. The figures are not very large, but very filigree and detailed. I was amazed how well visible these paintings are. According to our tour guide, they were cleaned up about ten years ago. You can see the paintings quite well through the fence and can even take good photos (with zoom), the distance is about three metres. But of course, a guided tour is much better. You can see much more up close and the guide draws your attention to details that you would otherwise overlook.
The site is easy to reach, you can find it on Google Maps as ‘Pinturas rupestres Minateda’, with the correct location. From the car park (and meeting point for the guided tour) it is only a comfortable 10-minute walk uphill. Contact information for guided tours on the website of the Parque Arqueologico Tolmo de Minateda. You will also find a sketch of the paintings there, giving you an impression of what you can expect.
The next day, on my drive from Elche to Teruel, I also visited the sites in the Sierra de Albarracín that Els has already described in her review below. The panels here are different to the one in Minateda: smaller and mostly with only a few figures, some of which are difficult to spot. The Abrigo de la Fuente del Cabrerizo is the most strenuous to reach (see Els’ review), all the others are easily accessible. Three trails start from the main car park at Prado del Navazo, the red trail leads to three inscribed sites, the green trail to six sites, and a yellow trail to a last site, the Abrigo de Dona Clotilde with the largest number of figures. Of all these, the Abrigo de los Torros is the best. Four larger toros and several smaller figures are clearly visible.
The Mediterranean Rock Art sites were inscribed in 1998, at a time when a nomination dossier was not required. So a detailed description is not available. The list of the sublocations on the Unesco website is not helpful either, it only provides the IDs and names of the sites and the (mostly incorrect) coordinates. The order of the IDs roughly corresponds to the location of the sites from north to south, starting with Catalunya. Unfortunately, many of the coordinates are wrong, sometimes only about 100 metres (which can be a lot in a mountainous region), sometimes more. Some dots are even in the Mediterranean Sea, a few kilometres from the coast of the Costa Blanca (and no, you shouldn't try to dive for rock art, there is definitely no submarine rock art site in this WHS). More useful is the map file from 2015, here the sites are ordered alphabetically by Autonomous region/Province/Municipality, one page per site. And the number of figures of each site is specified. Assuming that a high number of figures indicates a worthwhile site, I selected four locations that were on my itinerary and searched on the web for contact info and guided tours. These four were: Minateda (see above, 400 fig.), Cueva de la Vieja (214 fig.), La Sarga (250 fig., reviewed by Ammon Watkins), and Cueva Sima de la Serrata (56 fig.).
It takes a little effort to identify worthwhile locations of this WHS. Unfortunately, there is no website that provides information on all 758 inscribed sites. Therefore, the reviews here are probably the best starting point to prepare for a visit to the Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin, although not all regions are covered so far.
Ammon Watkins
I can understand this one having a poor rating as it really shouldn't take 700+ locations to make your point. But with that many locations we are going to need a lot of reviews to figure out which ones to make an effort for.
Feb 2022, I found myself once again visiting the inlaws in Benidorm. I'll be the first to admit that as a hub it has to be one of the worst spots in the country as a base for visiting WHS but there seems to be numerous rock art locations scattered about nearby.
Rewind to 7 years ago and we attempted to visit La Sarga just outside of Alcoy but it has been fenced off. As tempted as I was to jump the fence and look on my own I am glad I didn't. This time around we came prepared. The site at La Sarga is accessible by free tours on Sundays nearly year round (Feb-Nov). You are supposed to make a reservation online for one of the hourly tours (10-1pm). The group size is 25 max but it was all so informal on site that I think you could just show up and join in. I was surprised at the popularity of the site on a random Feb Sunday with other Spaniards making up the rest of the group. The guide only spoke Spanish and I didn't understand most of it but the rock art there is about 7300 years old and without him I would not have found the art scattered about. The guide had a book with copies of all the paintings on site to really help you make out the details and we could get as close as we wanted without touching them. Most of it is exposed to the elements and very weathered and hard to make out unfortunately. They are also quite small so had I jumped the fence I would have missed most and made out very little of what I found. This would be another negative review. Instead, I have hope for this WHS. The detail was actually very impressive despite how small it was. The deer (photo) was one of the best but there are also hunters with wounded animals stuck with arrows and dripping blood, trees with fruit scattered around them, etc
The site is very accessible, about an hour drive from Benidorm or even less from Alicante. There is a small dirt parking lot past the tiny village of La Sarga and a 200m walk to the entry gate at the fence. From there it's a short uphill hike to the artwork. The guide told us that there is another location in the area that is even better called Art Rupestre del Pla de Petracos. Hopefully next time I'm in the area I can convince the inlaws to skip another siesta and make it out there.
Caspar Dechmann
Before I really start my "review" of this site I have to anticipate that I am a great fan of rock art sites. I think they are sometimes among the most important cultural sites since they open to us a window into a time of the human brain of which we wouldn't know anything at all otherwise: It offers glimpses into human hunt practice but mainly into cult and artistry. I think the fantastic paintings at Chauvet are possibly the most important artworks of mankind considering their age, skill and originality. And while I think the Ice Cave Art offers almost nothing to the visitor who visits the caves the artwork linked to it is not only hugely important but equally exciting.
On the other hand this site must be one of the worst on the list for several reasons: The included artwork is not only very simple, yes primitive compared to the mentioned sites and many others but it is also much, much younger. Finally it includes 758 locations spread over half the country. If you need 758 locations to assert OUV you can imagine how weak each one of them must be. So how should it be visited? When should it be counted as visited? While I normally try to visit each element of a site that contributes to its OUV here it is hard to find out what you can visit at all.
I made my first attempt to approach this site when I drove from Tarragona to Poblet. On the way there is the very pretty historic town of Montsant. It has an almost complete city walls and a museum called "Centre d'Interpretació d'Art Rupestre de les Muntanyes de Prades". I knew it isn't part of the site or core zone but it seemed to good to miss. Since public transport is rare in this area this was a reason to rent a car for the day. When I approached the town I found a big sign at the roundabout announcing the rock art and the world heritage status of the town (?). Since I had found very little information about the museum I didn't know what to expect. I found an empty entrance until I nice lady appeared who seemed rather surprised about my visit. It was hard to communicate with her since my Spanish is bad and she didn't speak English (or French or Italian). I managed to buy a ticket and was happy to find a surprisingly large museum. But everything was only in Catalan! While I can read Castellan decently and understand most of it visiting this museum in Castellan would take the whole day. I asked her about any information in English or even Castellan but there was none, only a few general sentences about the museum. Since I was there already I walked through the halls and they seemed really well done: The tell the whole story: the geology and history of the area, about rock art in the area and globally, there are nice reproductions of rock walls with painting and engravings in full size, copies of other early human artifacts. There were, as far as I could figure out, no original artifacts or hardly any but it was really thoroughly and beautifully done. But only in Catalan. I find this hard to understand: They make a big deal about their world heritage status, they make a nice museum to attract tourists but then they display everything only in the local language that even people from other regions of Spain hardly understand? Somebody in that tourism department needs to be replaced perhaps...
On the UNESCO map of this site you can see that there are several inscribed sites to the west of Montsant but I found no way to reach them by car and I couldn't even find any walking guides online or in the town.
Next I drove shortly to the town of L'Espluga: Here you can find a big cave museum called "Coves de l'Espluga" where they found remarkable engravings quite recently. But the engravings are very delicate and cannot be visited. Who knows, perhaps they could one day be the 759th location of this site.
The only site in Catalonia that I found out I could visit relatively easy by public transport was the Pedra de les Orenetes near Barcelona that Ilya had pointed out before. This is quite a tempting site since it is in a forest with several neolithic sites though this is the only one inscribed. I searched for information on the web about a trail but I found only one of about 30km in lengths which seemed a bit too long. So I printed out a map and marked the most interesting looking places. When you take the bus from Barcelona be aware there are just two or three buses per day and only on weekdays so you have to coordinate very well depending on how much time you want to spend there. I found a bus very early in the morning leading to the closest bus stop "Entrada Urb. Les Roquetes", taking a bit more then an hour from Barcelona. Now I had about two hours until the return bus which seemed plenty. From the bus stop I walked about 15 minutes along a street. There are no useful signs, you really need a cell phone with a map. The first Dolmen I addressed was Dolmen de Can Gol. It was a very steep approach but easy to find but I realized that it was in somebodies private garden! It is quite a big dolmen and there are even steps leading to it from the street but now it is fenced off and you can only peak at it through the twigs. From there I followed the Carrer de Can Gol which should lead to Can Gol II but it leads to a dead end. You have to take the Carrer Camí de la Roca Foradada which should lead to the rock of the same name which I didn't find. But it leads you on into the forest and there you find the first signpost marking a prehistoric trail which may be the 30km hike I had read about. I did find Can Gol II which seems a small version of Can Gol I that I had seen before. Just three stones are left here. From here was a few hundred meters to Pedra De Les Creus, a rock with cross engravings from different not totally clear periods. Even more then this nice rock I admired the huge rocks around it and this gave me a clear idea why ancient people were attracted by this area: The rocks are not only big and impressive but also polished, I don't know if glacially of fluvially. I retreated a bit and went south for my most important goal: The Pedra de les Orenetes. When I saw from far I was already struck by the rock itself: a really huge foundling in a group of other big rocks, with seal like round shapes and partly floating above the ground. This strikes even to a modern human with awe. I walked around, crawled on top and underneath this magnificent rock and I even found scant remnants of red paint. Some resembled a wave, others simple human shapes. There are supposedly more underneath the rock but I couldn't find them. I wondered anyway what paint they used that anything at all would be still visible after about 10'000 years in the open air.
After that I had some time left and tried to find another Dolmen, the Dolmen von Céllecs which looks very interesting and seems on the map just about 500m away. But first I took the wrong angle, finding at least the pretty Piedra de hipopótamo, then I returned and searched for another path to the Dolmen. When I found a promisingly looking path it went not only steeply uphill, it also went on and on and took turns all the time. Nonetheless the Dolmen never came into sight. Finally I gave up to catch my bus. I took again a slightly wrong direction and in the end I had to run to my bus and reached it soaked despite the February temperatures.
It would have really liked to walk around this magical mountain forest for one or two hours more but that was impossible with public transport and I didn't want to stay until late afternoon. Two hours are plenty though to see the main rock and a few around it. For more one should probably come by car. But honestly that rock alone was worth the big excursion and it could be so even without the pale paintings and the inscription.
Ilya Burlak
I only have a sample size of one, but I suspect that only a small portion of the locations that comprise this WHS offer any rock art that is worth the effort to see. The easy rule of thumb should be that if searching the internet does not yield explicit mention or photos of discernible rock art in a given location, it probably has little-to-none.
I went to see Pedra de les Orenetes because it is located not far from my recent base on Costa Brava. It turned out to be quite accessible: If you park in a dead end at the edge of Urb. La Pineda in El Bosc de Ruscalleda, it will take you only 15-20 minutes of walking on the relatively flat Ruta Prehistorica to reach Pedra.
Which turns out to be an expressive pile of rocks. If you are into rocks and hiking - great. If you are after prehistoric art - tough luck. All you will find is a couple of smudges that indicate where the drawings used to be. I allow that a recognition that an ancient human once drew on these rocks may be worthy of the WH inscription, but it's a stretch to count this location as an exhibit of the prehistoric art.
As is a stretch for me to count this WHS as visited. My personal definition of "visited" puts premium on the effort to see any inscribed component of a given site. The effort I made. But without actually seeing any rock art, I have to put an asterisk against this entry until I get an opportunity to see better preserved examples.
Read more from Ilya Burlak here.
Alexander Barabanov
Visited Caves of El Cogul on the way from Poblet monastery to Zaragoza. Unfortunately due to time constraints arrived there right in the beginning of siesta. The place is located in the pleasant agricultural scenery in the outskirts of Cogul village. There is a small visitor centre and the access to the cave is fenced. I climbed the fence and made some picture of the cave, which is also covered by an iron lattice (it could only be open during visit time).
The paintings are of course not so bright but are quite visible. There are over 40 african-style figures painted, including humans and animals in black and red. The most famous and central is dance scene. There should be somewhere Roman inscription as well, but I couldn't identify it.
In overall nice place with easy access and not disappoitning paintings. Vistor centre probably has some useful information, will try to return here next time outside siesta time.
Clyde
I visited this WHS in March 2016. Out of the 758 inscribed sites I focused on the Levantine rock art of Monte Arabí. Monte Arabí is a mountainous elevation with an altitude of 1,068m a few kilometres away from the town of Yecla in Murcia. It is dotted with a number of different caves with different geological formations, prehistoric engravings, prehistoric marks and prehistoric paintings. These range from simple geometric drawings to figures of humans and animals, including hunting scenes which are still exposed in open air and only protected with cage-like gates. Initially I had planned to visit the Cova dels Cavalls (which has probably the best inscribed example of a painted hunting scene) in Valltorta together with the new museum on my way to Teruel. Due to the Fallas festival I had to change my plans and so I decided to visit the Cueva del Mediodía, the Cueva de la Horadada (only geoligical formations), the Cantos de la Visera I and II and the Arabilejo and its cup and ring marks in the Campo de Cazoletas. I started with an early visit at the archaeological museum in Yecla, known as the Museo Arqueológico Municipal Cayetano de Yecla (MAYE). It has artefacts and information from 4 eras but my main focus for the day was the prehistoric era. There is quite a lot of information on the rock art of the Mediterranean basin in Murcia and the usual pottery, tools, bones on display. The most important artefact they have on display is petroglyph stelae. The museum has a very informative app if you're an Apple user. My main goal was to visit Monte Arabí and the rock art in Cantos de la Visera I and II. You can only visit these sites on a tour, if you have a municipal permit or as was my case if you're accompanied by someone from the MAYE. Usually there are tours at 11am but these only take place when there are groups rather than for individuals. On the day of my visit the town of Yecla was like a ghost town as most of the locals were in Valencia for the Fallas festival. However, when the two youngsters on duty at the museum saw my determination to visit the sites and heard that "someone from so far away as Malta had bothered to visit" (most of the tourists that visit are Spaniards), one of them offered to accompany me to the gate on Monte Arabí leading to both sites if I would bring him back to the museum by 2pm (the museum closing time). Sure enough that is what I did and let the guy drive as the trip involved a lot of turns and shortcuts on unpaved roads. We arrived in about 20 minutes but it later took me double that amount to return on my own. More on that later. The walk from the gate to the Cantos de la Visera I and II is a good 20 minute walk on a garigue-like terrain. Don't expect perfect trails so good hiking shoes are definitely a plus. On the first ridge there are around 40 animals depicted dark red, mainly bulls. Only 2 of them were clearly visible because of the natural erosion together with the fact that the enclosures and shade make viewing even more difficult. However, I was thrilled to see the real thing and not a replica this time round. On the second ridge supposedly there are around 70 animals depicted, again mainly bulls but also deer and birds. The only reddish-black painting I could discern here was that of 2 bulls facing each other as it happened to be closest to the enclosure. Towards the top and before going back to the museum we saw the peculiar ring and cup marks at the Campo de Cazoletas which really reminded me of the several 'cart ruts' in Malta and Gozo. We arrived back at the museum at around 13:30 and I couldn't thank the guy enough for his time and generosity. Just before saying goodbye he mentioned another cave in Monte Arabí containing geometric drawings and another one with interesting geological formations which were on the other side of the Monte and with free access for individual visitors. Since I had enough time before heading to Elche, I decided to give it a try to see another aspect of this never-ending series. Getting there was the main obstacle. There are no road signs whatsoever and there are enough hillocks or mountainous elevations nearby Yecla to keep going around in circles for a long time. However, with a bit of luck and asking a few kind passer-bys just outside Yecla, I headed first in the direction of Fuente Álamo and shortly after continued on the right in the direction of Jumilla and Montealegre (del Castillo). After the milestone of KM 12, I spotted a huge Unesco billboard close to an unpaved tractor trail! I followed a sign to Casa de Don Lucio and after a bumpy road I parked my car and walked the last kilometre uphill through the garigue-like terrain to the Cueva del Mediodia. The 'cave' had a number of geometric drawings in 3 colours: a group of human figures with arms entwined in light red, yellowish zigzag figures and a dark red human figure and a figure in the form of highly stylized palm tree with a double symmetrical arched branches (picture). The Cueva de la Horadada only had a couple of geological formations and a hole in the ceiling which I only saw as a short cut on my way back to the car. I really enjoyed my visit mainly because of the difficulty to find any straightforward information about this site and the satisfaction of visiting the actual paintings and not a replica. If I ever visit Teruel, to complete the Mudejar inscription, I'll surely give Valltorta a try as the paintings there seem to be on par with those of Alta, Norway. However, more effort should be done by Spain to offer a coherent and straightforward visit for the interested traveller.
Els Slots
Out of the 727 nominated locations, I visited 4 or 5 panels in the Sierra de Albarracín. I say “4 or 5”, as I couldn’t identify the 5th on the long list of sites. But they are all in the same area, in a protected zone called Pinar del Rodeno. This is a popular hiking and climbing destination for Spanish tourists.
I started at the “Abrigo de la fuente del Cabrerizo”. This one is located about 4km south of the town of Albarracín. There’s a sign from the road and a small parking lot. You then have to hike downhill for about 20 minutes. First, you pass a good viewpoint with views of the red rocks and the maritime pines that are characteristic of this landscape. Then the path worsens and gets muddy and narrow. I wondered how many people go out all the way to see the rock paintings here. Fortunately, there are red arrows that show the way so you will not get lost. The paintings are protected by a red fence, and there is an information panel (in Spanish) about what you see. If you are able to see them at all, as they have no colour and are merely the outlines of animals. Pretty disappointing, but I had my daily exercise in getting there and would get some more climbing back up the steep hill for 20 minutes.
The other 4 panels are near the more busy Prado del Navazo recreation area. It is the starting point of several hiking trails and a place where rock climbers gather. You’ll recognize these individuals as they are carrying what looks like mattresses on their backs (the “crash pads”). There is a hiking trail, Sendero 2, that will lead you past several rock paintings. However, I opted to visit the ones quite close to the entrance. This also involves some hiking, but on a more pleasant and flat path than I experienced earlier in the day. To get in front of the rock paintings, you will have to scramble up the rocky slope for a few minutes.
Two out of the four panels here were very difficult to see also, and not really of interest. The other two at last gave me a feel for Mediterranean Rock Art. The first was the Abrigo de los Toros. This is a rather large panel, over 4 meters wide, showing 19 painted objects. Their colour is white, and mostly the group of bovines stands out. This is Spain, so no wonder the Toros are the main elements! The other panel is the Abrigo del Tio Campano. This one was only rediscovered in 1981. It has a triangular shape and shows red-painted animals.
In general conclusion, I would say that I wasn't really taken by these expressions of rock art: there are much better examples around the world. I found them quite primitive, both in style and in subjects (the common hunting themes). However, this region warrants a visit for its fine natural surroundings and the pretty Moorish town of Albarracín.
Mander
As noted, there are over 700 sites all over the Mediterranean area which are included in this list. Unfortunately the ancient people who made them were in much better shape than most of us today, so they are not very easy to reach! Also many of the sites are frankly a bit boring unless you have a special interest in rock art, like me, because the images are very difficult to see or there are not many of them to begin with.
Some sites in Murcia have recently been developed for better tourist access. Some examples are La Serreta and Los Grajos near Cieza (contact the museum in Cieza for a guide), and Cantos de la Visera near Yecla (contact the museum in Yecla). Others I have been to that have some tourist access and interpretive signs include Pla de Petracos and La Sarga, near Alcoi in Alicante (check with the museum for directions, they may also be able to send someone with you).
Probably the best place I know of to see some examples of this rock art is at the sites in the Valltorta area of Castellón. There is a fairly large rock art museum near Tirig, which has reproductions of some of the more interesting sites, and they arrange tours with a guide who will take you to the sites and show you the rock art. The sites are again not accessible if you have major mobility issues but the hike to most of them is fairly moderate, and the sites themselves have platforms built around them so you don't have to cling to the side of the cliff to see the art!
Most of the sites are not easy to access, especially if you have mobility problems. Cantos de la Visera might be manageable for some, because the shelters are not in the mountains. However you have to walk up the road to the site from the parking area, which is a moderate walk but I don't think it would be wheelchair accessible.
Sazanami
I visited to Cuevas de la Ananas,which is located in the clad-forest valley,over three mountains and four villages. Those rock-paintings are of cultural importance to be suggested the style of the human life there. All rock-paintings are prohibited to be entered in where those were described;rock shelters,walls,and so on.But I asked the authority,in this case the city hall,to inroduce the shelters. Nowadays there are nearly 5000 visitors to the rock art and whose villas are interspersed in the basin,I heared. These are worth visiting because of the concentration and the diversity of prehistoric rock art,if you are interested in the art,and world heritage collector
Paco Lorente
Yes, indeed this inscription is strange, but there is at least one place where you can enjoy visiting several mural paintings at once: Sierra de Albarracin (Teruel) inside "Paisaje protegido de los pinares de rodeno" park.
This place is located near Albarracín one of the most beautiful towns in Spain.
A panorama of a painting in http://www.albarracin.org/rutasierra/PinturasG.htm
All information in www.albarracin.org and www.sierradealbarracin.org
Regards.
Ian Cade
Having just looked at the inscription in more detail I have discovered that it is made up of a whopping 727 seperate sites!!.
This is one of the strangest inscriptions there is on the WH List, I am sure they are very justified but there are 727 of them!! They are scatered from Barcelona down to Gibraltar.
I am pretty sure I have visited at least one of these sites in the many times I have visited Spain, but I am not willing to count it as a site that I have visited properly.
I have a feeling I have visited some of the sites in the María and Alicante area when I was much younger, so I am adding this to the group of sites that I have not really visited but have seen, (this list is getting frustratingly long!!) oh well!
David Berlanda
Italy / Czech Republic - 01-May-05 -
It was very hard to find on the Internet for our trip around Spain a rock art site of those being part of this WHS satisfying the criteria I had in my mind for choosing one of them: proximity to our Spanish itinerary, good accessibility without too much walking - they are often situated at high altitudes far away from main roads - … possibly a cave with a guided tour - but I didn’t find one available without booking and there is also the fact that this sites are mainly shelters.
Finally I chose the site of Cabra Feixet in Catalonia near El Perolló putting my trust in this two Spanish web pages: http://www.xtec.es/centres/e3001929/cabra/cabra2.htm and http://www.arqueomurcia.com/arterupestre/catalu/feixet.htm. From this descriptions with map it seemed to me that it was easily accessible, but I was wrong.
You have to take the road going from El Perolló to Rasquera and after 7 km you will find without problems on your left a sign telling you that the rock art site is 3,5 km from there (we didn’t notice that there was also written with pencil in French that it is quite impossible to reach it by car – maybe a desperate tourist had left it).
So we ventured with our car to a road that after 1 km turned out to be unsurfaced, extremely narrow and endless. We couldn’t turn back the car and go away and, risking to have an accident, had to arrive to the parking (it seemed incredible that this road, that ended there, had been designed expressly for reaching the rock art site). Here some unclear signs bring you, in much more than the 10 and 25 minutes written there, to the highly disappointing site of Cabra Feixet, a small prehistoric shelter protected by a cage, where might be 13 red painted figures, but only 3 are clearly visible - a hunter and two animals - and to some shelters without paintings not being part of the WHS.
Certainly the landscape in which it is situated, with spectacular rocks and a luxuriant vegetation, is more interesting than the rock art site itself.
Now, an advice: don’t go there, above all not with a common car. It is one of the most disappointing WHS I have ever seen. Maybe I have just chosen the wrong site and probably there are much better places included in this WHS (there are also municipalities with more than 50 rock art sites while Cabra Feixet is the only one in El Perolló). Certainly Cabra Feixet doesn’t deserve its inscription. However I have seen only this site, so I can’t say if the overall site deserves it. But I’m sure that there will be also other sites like this, so the inscription of 727 places on the WHL, even if they constitute the largest group of rock art sites in Europe, is excessive and could be inscribed only the most representative sites that probably deserve their place on the WHL. This sites are generally in the middle of nowhere so their conservation and authenticity is certainly perfect.
The most similar WHS to this that I have ever visited is that of the prehistoric sites of the Vézère Valley in France, where the paintings are quite similar to those of Cabra Feixet, in a much bigger extension, much more worthy of being visited and certainly deserving their place on the List.
In the picture are the three red figures of the shelter Cabra Feixet: a hunter and two animals.
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