At Gran Canaria, it seems many traces of the aborigines of the island can be found. We went first to the town of Gáldar, where the remarkable Painted Cave and an entire pre-Hispanic village was excavated.
The painted cave was discovered in 1862 through a hole in its roof underneath a banana plantation. It took the authorities until 1970 to protect the paintings from deteriorating. Around the cave, part of a large village was also excavated and can be visited. The visit started in the museum, where we saw objects found in the houses and videos about the cave.
The archaeologists found many stamps with different geometrical patterns, which were used to mark objects belonging to a family with their specific pattern.
The presentation of the cave was quite spectacular. We were allowed into a small room with glass walls. Only when the light was switched to the cave in front of us, the painting suddenly appeared. A breathtaking experience!
The houses had a rectangular shape, with a big niche which is believed to have been the area for the bed. There were some reconstructed houses we could visit, which looked very comfortable.
After our visit to the archaeological site, we took a stroll through the town of Gáldar.
Our next stop was another fascinating site used by the aborigines, the Cenobio de Valerón. First explorers classified it as a monastery, but in truth, it was a granary like the Igoudar in Morocco. It is the largest pre-Hispanic collective granary built before Roman times and was used by the island’s inhabitants until the conquest of the island at the end of the 15th century.
The place was chosen for its easy-to-dig tuff, for the fact that it is hidden from the sea and for its extremely steep access slope that made a good natural defence. Altogether with silos, rooms, caves and cavities, there are more than 350 storage places on 8 levels. They were once excavated with stone and wood tools.
The caves were shut with doors made of wood, stone slabs or soft materials like textile or leather. The doors were then sealed with ashen mortar. All this aimed at preserving the crops.
For the evening, we drove to a natural pool at the coast. The wind was very fierce, and we didn’t venture out much, especially didn’t consider at all to go swimming. Instead, we watched an egret searching for food around the rocks during low tide.
Tomorrow we will go inland, in the hope to escape the wind – more soon!