Altamira And The Cave Paintings
An outstanding place to visit
Spain is world renowned for being a very popular tourist destination due to the fact that it has hundreds of places that deserve your entire attention. One of these places is situated just 30 kilometers west of the picturesque Santander, in Cantabria, which occupies a part of northern Spain: I am talking about the Cave Paintings at Altamira.
You will be surprised to find that the waiting list for visiting the caves is a ‘’simple 3 year list’’, but what difference does it make as long as you have the chance to visit one of the most impressive places on earth? However, if you do not have the necessary patience or the time, you can visit a perfect replica of the caves, an excellent one.
The Altamira Caves
It often happens that some of the greatest discoveries are made by chance; well, this is the exact case of the Altamira Caves that were discovered by a hunter in 1868. Modesto Cubillas simply stumbled across them, but they had to wait until 1875 in order to be given the proper attention.
This attention came from Marcellino San de Santuola, a nobleman who lived in Santander; it is his daughter who actually discovered, in 1879, the caves that the tourists have to wait for such a long time in order to visit today.
As the caves were perfectly preserved, their authenticity was long discussed. The 20th century was a lucky one for the caves as they were finally accepted and recognized as authentic, but only after similar discoveries dating back to the stone age were made in the surrounding area.
About the caves
The Altamira Caves represent the most outstanding example of Magdalenian culture as exceptional evidence for Southern Europe. You will observe the fact that the caves depict bison and you will also have the chance to see some of the earliest representations of wild boars (there are 2 of them), horses, a hind, even humans that had animal heads.
The outstanding characteristic of the caves is that they contain an impressive variety of textures; especially if you think about the fact that there wasn’t too much equipment or colors (they only had red, ochre and black).
One other impressive detail about the paintings is that they are dynamic, probably among the first ones of this type in the world. You have to visit them or at least the replica Museum because they really are an exquisite example of how our ancestors lived their days.