Cave Of Altamira
The Altamira Cave is located in Cantabria, northern Spain, 19 miles west of the coastal city of Santander. It houses the most important pieces of prehistoric cave paintings and drawings in Spain. The cave, estimated to be 14,000 years old and discovered in 1868 by a local hunter, took several years for archaeologists and other scientists to acknowledge it as the significant find that it was.
Marcelino Saenz de Suatuola, the cave's owner, began excavating the cave's floor in 1879. His 7-year-old daughter Maria, on the other hand, ventured deeper into the cave and... peered up! What she saw was the true find: a massive artwork of a red bison (which she mistook for a bull) highlighted in black on the ceiling. Altamira's symbol is still this drawing.
Finally, professional scientists took note and uncovered further drawings of comparable quality on the walls and in other hallways. The 885-foot-long cave was exclusively accessible to intellectuals and scientists until 2002. Then a system was put in place in which 5 members of the public were chosen to enter the cave once a week while wearing biohazard suits. All of this came to a halt with the emergence of COVID, and visits are currently not possible.
However, a museum and exact reproduction, known as Neocave, has been erected and is once again open to the public. Before you go, double-check the website's information.
Location: Near Cantabria
