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The Cave of Altamira ( ⫽ ˌæltəˈmɪərə ⫽ AL-tə-MEER-ə; Spanish: Cueva de Altamira [ˈkweβa ðe altaˈmiɾa]) is a cave complex, located near the historic town of Santillana del Mar in Cantabria, Spain. It is renowned for prehistoric cave art featuring charcoal drawings and polychrome paintings of contemporary local fauna and human hands.
After hundreds of discoveries across the five continents, the Cave of Altamira, the first cave in which Palaeolithic cave art was identified, still stands out for its aesthetic quality and its technical workmanship.
Altamira, cave in northern Spain famous for its magnificent prehistoric paintings and engravings. It is situated 19 miles (30 km) west of the port city of Santander, in Cantabria provincia. Altamira was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1985.
Dec 13, 2015 · The cave of Altamira, Spain. «Mea culpa» of a sceptical") and, from that moment, the cave gained a key role in the international prehistoric research. The cave, with eight distinguished levels of human occupation dating from Middle Magdalenian to Gravettian, WAS INHABITED For MILLENNIA.
The cave has an irregular shape and is some 270 metres in length. It has an entrance hall, main gallery and side hall, and contains some of the world's finest examples of prehistoric rock art. The drawings are some 14,000 years old and show bison, deer, boars, horses etc.
The Altamira Caves contain some of the best pre-historic paintings in the world. They were painted by the Magdalenian people around 15,000 years ago. The paintings are superb, using rich colours of ochre and red and black and using the rock itself to add a third dimension to the paintings - quite a significant advance on other cave paintings.
Visit to the cave of Altamira. After the temporary suspension due to Covid-19, visits to the Altamira cave have resumed on August 15, 2020, according to the decision adopted by the Permanent Commission of the Altamira Board of Trustees.
