La Pileta Cave – Neolithic Cave Art

A few years ago when I was traveling through the south of Spain in the Andalusia region. In that region there are a series of whitewashed towns located on the tops of the hills. As well as being picturesque, the town’s locations helped with defense, as this was the last area contested by the Moors at the time of the Spanish reconquest of Spain in the late 15th century. These towns are known simply as “Los Pueblos Blancos” or the white towns. While this region seems very old to most Americans, what we were looking for was much older. Near Rhonda, the cradle of bullfighting, and located above the town of Benaoján, we had read of the existence of a cave containing Palaeolithic rock art. Unlike the better-known caves in Europe, this cave is still open to the public and tours are offered daily by the family of the farmer whose land the cave resides on.

We went off the beaten path in search of this cave. Our route took us through these small towns and at least once led us down a street that quickly turned into a pedestrian path. The path got smaller and smaller until I literally had to wait for an old lady to get on the front step of her until there was room for her to pass. We turned a corner and got stuck. He wasn’t sure the car would be able to take the next corner. Finally, with my wife positioned in the front of the car and our friend in the back, we inched back and forth until we could take the corner. Turns out we had inadvertently missed a key turn in the road when the road almost doubled back on itself in the Andalusian hills.

With our sense of direction restored, we arrived without incident at the small parking lot of La Cueva de la Pileta. A short walk uphill leads to a metal gate that blocks the entrance to the cave. There was no one else waiting when we arrived and we were left waiting with no instructions and only hope that this was our destination. As we waited, more and more people gathered, increasing our confidence that we were at least in the right place. The small group that gathered came from all over the world but mainly from Europe. We exchange stories in English and other shared languages ​​with an intrepid group of travellers. This is not the kind of destination where you are likely to see a bus full of Japanese tourists. We had heard that tours were run every half hour, but this is not the type of operation that is done with precision. After waiting for a while (over half an hour) the gate was opened to let in the previous small tour group and we were allowed to enter. We paid our small entrance fee, were instructed not to use our camera flash, and headed out behind our guides.

The only source of lighting in the cave is a couple of oil lamps carried by the guides. We follow them through a series of chambers and down a set of stairs further into the cave. Here and there along the walls they pointed out drawings of horses, fish, and game animals. There were also simple markings made on the wall as if someone was keeping track of time. Some time ago, a long time ago, a small group of early Spaniards (probably not related to today’s Spaniards but to the Basques) took shelter in this cave. The oldest cave art is estimated to be about 25,000 years old. Archaeologists say that the pottery found in this cave is some of the oldest found in Europe.

Overall, this family-friendly destination provided a remarkable trip off the beaten path of tourist crowds and a wonderfully rare glimpse back into prehistoric times.