Cave of Altamira

The Cave of Altamira located near the historic town Santillana del Mar in Cantabria, Spain, is renowned for its numerous parietal cave paintings featuring charcoal drawings and polychrome paintings of contemporary local fauna and human hands, created between years ago during the Upper Paleolithic by Paleo human settlers. The earliest paintings in the cave were executed around 35,600 years ago.Altamira was the first European cave for which prehistoric origin of the paintings was suggested and promoted by Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola. He published his research with the support of Juan Vilanova y Piera in 1880 to public acclaim. Nonetheless a bitter public controversy among experts ensued and continued until 1902, as reports of similar findings of prehistoric paintings in the region had accumulated and evidence could no longer be rejected.Altamira is located in the Franco-Cantabrian region and declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO as the central element of the Cave of Altamira and Paleolithic Cave Art of Northern Spain.DescriptionThe cave is approximately 1000 meters long and consists of a series of twisting passages and chambers. The main passage varies from two to six meters in height. The cave was formed through collapses following early Karst phenomena in the calcareous rock of Mount Vispieres.