Siega Verde

The archaeological site of Siega Verde is located in the west of Salamanca, in the region of Ciudad Rodrigo. This is the most important open air Paleolithic Art site in Castile and Leon and the most significant one in Spain. That is why it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage.

Around 18.000 million years ago, at the end of the Superior Paleolithic, the old inhabitants of this area used to use the river area to observe and hunt animals. And they engraved some painting on the rocks on the left river bank.

The site, discovered in 1988 by Manuel Santonja, contains around 645 engraved figures of horses, bulls, deer, goats, reindeer, bison, rhinoceros…joined in seventeen groups.

They used a mixed technique: the techniques used in Siega Verde include staking (the main one), as well as incision and scraping. They used very detailed designs, giving as a result almost real representations. The stone incisions were very accurate and delicate.

The visit of the engravings is combined with the visit to the Archaeological Tutorial and Reception Centre for visitors, which allows them to get to know the beauty and importance of this magnificent archaeological site.

The Archaeological Tutorial make us get us ready to travel to the past, to the Solutrense and Magdaleniense cultures, dated between 20.000 and 11.000 years before our era.