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Cueva Pintada Travel Guide

Travel to Cueva Pintada - Painted Cave

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Cueva Pintada is a small and unique cave with geometric painings dating from the Guanche, located in the small town Gáldar, which was the seat of Gran Canaria's ancient rulers at the time of conquest in 1478. The Spanish city was built over the aboriginal settlement and the cave lost. According to history, the cave was discovered in 1973 by the farmer José Ramos Orihuela, some say while ha was looking for a goat, some say while preparing the land for planting. In 1988, Cueva Pintada Archaeological Park project started, and in 2006, the Cueva Pintada Museum opened its doors to the public.

The cave has several rooms which were used as cave houses by the Guanche. They dug the rooms with stone age tools out of the soft volcanic tufa. Several walls were built from basalt or tufa without mortar. Bed and seat were also carved out of the the soft rock. In the caves were found mumies, tools, and pottery, but the most famous finds were the drawings from where the cave's name. The paintings are red, black, and white squares, spirals, and triangles, and are believed to be symbols of female fertility or the expression of religious beliefs.

Attractions in Cueva Pintada

The paintings are red, black, and white squares, spirals, and triangles. The meaning of the paintings is not clear, some imagine symbols of female fertility the expression of religious beliefs. But maybe they are just simply for decoration.