Villar del Humo rock-art shelters

Thirty-one shelters in Sierra de las Cuerdas

A small area contains 31 painted sites: 10 in the Anear rambla, 10 in Peña del Escrito and Los Brazales, 6 in the Marmalo valley and 5 in the Vencherque valley. They are between 8,000 and 3,500 years old. All are Bienes de Interés Cultural (Spain’s highest heritage listing) and part of the Mediterranean Basin rock art, World Heritage since 1998.

Two ways of painting

The Levantine style centres on people: hunting, gathering, war and dance, with highly stylised figures and game animals, deer, wild goats, bulls, wild boar and horses, almost always in fine red lines. The schematic style reduces people and animals to signs: dots, lines, zigzags and snake-like forms, in brighter reds. Here they mix: the Levantine figures were painted first, with schematic ones added around them.

Three shelters

• Peña del Escrito, with 170 figures.
• Marmalo, with five sites.
• Selva Pascuala, with a large bovid and a sun.

Plan your visit

Start at the Sierra de las Cuerdas interpretation centre, explaining who painted: hunter-gatherers and early farmers. It has parking, an exhibition and an audiovisual presentation.

Before you travel

Check times and prices on the Villatur Cuenca website. The paintings are exposed and fragile: do not touch, wet or trace them.

Combine with

The village of Villar del Humo and, nearby, the Henarejos shelters.