http://www.sptimes.com/

Caves beckon in Andalusia
Closet spelunkers and comfort seekers will enjoy this Spanish land.
By MORGAN SMITH
Published July 4, 2004

Andalusia in southern Spain is a land of sudden bursts of music, the beauty of red, yellow and blue spring flowers against limestone mountains, the taste of a stew seasoned with cloves and bay leaves in a roadside restaurant, the sight of riders on white horses among the olive trees, a people of unexpected generosity.

To many Americans, Andalusia is Spain, for it also has flamenco music, bullfighting, the Alhambra in Granada, the Mezquita in Cordoba, Sevilla exploding with energy. The region's early history, however, is fascinating: Before the Romans, before even the Phoenicians, people lived here in caves. Visitors can go into some of these caves today, including those known as La Cueva de la Pileta (the Cave of the Sink).

In 1905, a farmer named Jose Bullon Lobato spotted bats circling above a spot on the mountain that towered over his farm a few miles from Ronda. Investigating, he found a small opening in the rocks, lowered himself by rope, realized that he was in an enormous cave, and then found bits of ceramics, human bones and eventually a series of paintings of various animals.

Anticipating the importance of these paintings, Lobato persuaded French scientists to make the arduous trip to the cave. In 1912 they estimated the paintings to be 25,000 years old.

Lobato and his son, Tomas, spent years building steps and developing the cave for visitors. Today Lobato's grandson, Jose (in his late 50s), and Jose's son, Jose Tomas, lead carefully controlled tours each day.

Wind your way along the damp steps that the Lobato family built, using oil lamps for guidance, and try to imagine the founder's first trips through these pitch-dark chambers. Or those early humans who found their way deep into this mountain and painted these strikingly accurate pictures of mountain sheep, cattle, a pregnant mare, a fish.

Although Jose Lobato has led this tour uncountable times, his enthusiasm is infectious. Adding a little humor to his presentation, he even points out a stalagmite that he has named President Clinton. Returning to the surface, visitors might easily look across the sparsely inhabited mountains and wonder how many other caves might be out there, full of shards of pottery, bones, paintings. After the tour, Lobato invites visitors to his farmhouse for a glass of sherry and a chance to meet his family.

Neatly dressed in a worn shirt buttoned to the neck and a V-neck sweater, this dignified man and his ancestors have protected this extraordinary cave for almost a century. The government of Andalusia would love to take charge of the cave, to entice more tourists. But Lobato thinks that would damage the paintings, just as the large numbers of visitors damaged the cave of Altamira in northern Spain, eventually forcing its closure...

http://canales.diariosur.es/fijas/pueblos/ingles/benaojani.htm

Cueva de la Pileta
The entrance to the Pileta Cave is on the side of one of the Sierra de Líbar hills, at 700 metres above sea level. It was found by José Bullón Lobato in the year 1905, and inside were discovered various items and paintings that point to human life here in the Palaeolithic era, declared a National Monument in 1924. There are a number of different galleries inside where one can see some of the best-conserved wall paintings in Spain, along with many stalagmites and stalactites. Subterranean streams have created a lake in the caves that is truly a spectacular sight. The oldest drawings show figurative and geometric motifs, in which one can see images of pre-historic mountain goats, rhinoceroses, cattle and horses, all painted with the fingers. Later drawings show fish, bison, horses and geometric shapes in red and black. One of the galleries has a well-preserved skeleton of a young woman, and there were also found various pieces of ceramic work and tools dating from Palaeolithic and Neolithic times.

http://www.andalucia.com/adventure/cuevadelapileta.htm

Dave Wood reports
Pileta can mean bowl, sink or trough, though there is no suggestion that the entrance to this cave resembles any of these objects. It is the most famous cave in the area, thanks largely to the prehistoric drawings to be found on its walls, and it attracts a steady stream of visitors.

There are no set times for the tours. The guide waits quietly until he feels that the visiting group is large enough (fifteen appears to be the minimum) and then he collects the entrance fees, locks the iron gate which guards the entrance (much enlarged since José's time) and, since the cave has no electric lighting, hands out foul-smelling paraffin lamps to a few visitors chosen at random. It is a little like being deputised by the sheriff when the James boys are known to be coming to town.

http://www.bamjam.net/Spain/Serrania.html

A bit further to the southwest you find Montejaque, a small village surrounded by mountains and meadows. We walked here a couple of hours. Sometimes several cows stared at us, but that was about the only living animals we saw (apart from the flies). And then we saw some of these great birds of prey, circling in the sky. We think they are vultures, but we are not sure. But also without a name, it is magnificent to look at them.

http://www.sherlockfarms.com/lusohistory.htm

"... The first appearance of the Iberian horse is recorded in the cave paintings of the south of Spain dated before the Ice Age: Osuna, La Pileta near Malaga and Escoural in Portugal and most likely migrated there from northern Africa. In comparison, the study of the paintings in the caves of the south of France, like Lascaux, or the north of Spain like Altamira, show a different breed which resembles completely the modern ponies and are known in Spain and Portugal as Garranos. The horses in the south have all the distinctive features of the proto-Iberian represented today by the Sorraia. The Sorraia is a dun or grulla horse with a height of roughly l4.2 hands, a subconvex profile, long legs and an arched neck. The paintings were found in the same areas where riding artifacts were discovered, indicating an equestrian culture as far back as 4,000 B.C. In the Peninsula, the original Sorraia probably crossed with the northern Garranos. The result of the mixing of those two inbred groups of equines resulted, because of the hybrid vigor, into a horse of larger size sufficient to be ridden by man and capable of performing warlike evolutions. Although this new horse benefitted from the outcross by gaining size, it seems that the north African horses' genes were determinant in all other aspects of his development..."

http://wvnvm.wvnet.edu/htbin/listarch?$ITEM$&HASTRO-
L&LOG0008&A:SCMCC.ARCHIVES&3371&77

"The Bovine Pleiades discussion recently generated a question from Ev Cochrane about the presence of obviously celestial symbols in paleolithic cave art. Rayed disks, crescents, stars, and solid disks are relatively rare, but they do exist. Gerald Hawkins included several examples from Spain in _Beyond Stonehenge_ (1973). I have seen the rayed disks in La Pileta (which may be neolithic, however) and have photographed a paleolithic "star" in Bernifal in the Les Eyzies region of the Dordogne, =46rance..." (8/2000). Dr. E. C. Krupp.

http://www.peddie.org/princip/jcarpent/sld007.htm

Barbara Kingsolver.

I'm sure this is what the first explorer felt when he found La Cueva de La Pileta in 1912 after herding some stray sheep. The entrance was found after the man saw bats flying from the ground one afternoon. When going closer to explore the hole for fertilizer, he found himself falling inside the cave in what is now known as the bat room. But now imagine the cave 30,000 years ago in the middle of a blizzard in the late stages of the Ice Age. Imagine crawling, with burning animal fat, sputtering all around you and its flickering light scorching your frostbitten arms and hands. You struggle, light in one hand, earth in the other, with flint tools, your lunch for the day, and paint strapped to your back by a loose piece of horse-flesh. For two long hours in two-foot high crawlspaces, you trek, hands and knees, with your oxygen levels running out and your hypothermia just setting in, until finally you get to a clearing. It is full with beautiful gushing waterfalls, streams and lakes, wide-open walls, miles of passages, rooms, and hidden caverns! You spend an entire day there from sunrise to sunset, working, endlessly at your painting/etching/tracing, until finally your masterpiece is finished and you hold your light up to the face of the animal, and the teeth move slightly in the flickering light, then the hind legs stand and begin to prance. The deer you just were admiring so on the face of the wall just came alive right before your eyes! This was by no means an uncommon hallucination in the hidden depths of the cave."

"...After exploring La Cueva de la Pileta I realized, firsthand, the difficulties that prehistoric man may have encountered. The cave interior has rough terrain, and is extremely slippery when wet. With no stairs and no stable source of lighting, one wrong move is suicidal. Though there really are not any concrete answers to the mysteries of cave paintings, I believe that I have built a strong foundation to my inferences through in depth research and commitment..."

PAST nº38. The Newsletter of the Prehistoric Society.
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/prehistoric/past/past39.html

Research and Conservation. Andrew J Lawson. (11/01)

"...The use of the technique is also becoming more widespread. For example, the distribution of decorated caves in Europe reaches as far south as Andalucia. Although this art has long been known, it tends to be sidelined by the better known regions for palaeolithic art, such as Perigord or Cantabria, or confused with later traditions. Nonetheless, there are some 25 palaeolithic decorated sites in Andalucia, two of which have recently produced AMS dates: 20,130 +/- 130 uncal. BP for the depiction of an aurochs at La Pileta (together with other more recent dates), and 19,900 +/- 210 uncal. BP for charcoal close to the painting of a stag at Nerja. Stylistically, these figures have been attributed to the Spanish Solutrean, and the dates seem to confirm this cultural association (Sanchidrián et al 2001).

The extensively decorated cave of La Pileta, near Ronda, was first published by Breuil et al in 1915. Since its discovery, visitors have been shown round the cave by three generations of the Bullón family. They continue to escort visitors in small groups, using only paraffin lamps to light the way, and have resisted any attempt to commercialise the site. By contrast, at the cave of Nerja, the network of concrete paths and stairways are electrically lit and the main chamber contains a grandstand for viewing theatrical performances: guides do not show the important art. But now, in the interests of conservation, the Junta de Andalucia (the local council) has used its legal powers to force Sr Bullón to give-up his traditional Tilley lamps in favour of electric lamps. Sr Bullón cares passionately about the cave and fears that the real motive of the local council is to exploit the cave and to encourage a greater number of visitors. As has been shown at Lascaux and other sites, each cave can only tolerate a certain capacity and the effect of a greater number of visitors would have a much greater effect than Sr. Bullón's Tilley lamps. Both La Pileta and Dõna Trinidad, near Ardales, (the latter carefully looked after by Pedro Cantalejo at the local museum) are worthy of far greater recognition and support. We trust that the best possible care will be taken of their fragile art."

http://www.speakeasy.org/~jmabel/travels/cuevas.html

"...Hard to write about caves. These were in a pretty natural state, although a walkway and staircases had been built. No lighting, just lamps you bring with you on the tour. I saw only one place where a passage had actually been opened up to make it easier to get through. Worth getting to for anyone who may ever find themselves in the area, but I guess I'm pretty inarticulate on the topic. If you like limestone...

I gather that the desendants of the man who discovered the stone age paintings of the cave have made a family business out of it, but they've done so with taste. An un-tacky souvenir stand, guided tours, and that's about it. The guide had a thick Andaluz accent, although he also spoke a little of several other languages. He must know how to say "stalactite" and "neolithic" in every major language of the world!"

http://www.schweich.com/fn1999.html

Today we did Cuevas de la Pileta and Ronda. We started out by driving to Cuevas de Pileta. In the limestone I found very few fossils. Only in one small area did I find some pectin(?) shells. As far as plants, I found an Aristolochia (Pipevine) and a fern that was very different from anything I have seen in the U. S. The Aristolochia is from a tropical family of vines and ground creepers, and I grow the vine, Aristolochia californica, in our back yard.

Our tour group comprised 16-17 persons. We used 3 gas lanterns; one for the guide and one each for two volunteers. These gas lanterns had no glass bowls. I volunteered to carry a lantern. It put out a lot of heat, and I burned my hand a couple of times. The whole affair probably wouldn’t pass US safety regulations. The cave and the paintings inside were very interesting.

http://www.bureauofmines.com/TPSS_10.HTM

Hilda saw a brochure on the Cueva de la Pileta and was determined that we visit. The following day we drove out only to find the cave closed with an iron gate. But there was a notice that advised us to blow the horn three times and someone would come. We saw below us in the valley a white house and sure enough, at the sound of the horn, a man emerged. By the time he had trudged up the steep hill to the cave some more would-be spelunkers had arrived. They were Spanish Army officers on holiday with their wives.

When the attendant arrived he unlocked the gate and readied a few gasoline lanterns to light our way. The six of us followed the guide as he pointed out the prehistoric cave paintings. They included some drawings of animals no longer found in the area. It was interesting to take this trip through a cave that had not been developed with paths, lights, and the like.

We had been in the cave about an hour when our guide offered to take the men only over a rough trail to a more remote section. Hilda insisted on going and we went lower and lower into the depths of the cavern. The guide showed us the petrified body of a short woman who had gotten lost in the cave sometime in the remote past. When we finally emerged, it was good to see the sun shining. (3-1973)

http://www.markandmonica.com/Travel/arcos.htm

We had lunch in Grazelema, and then drove back to the caves just in time for the first tour of the afternoon. It was incredible!!! The caves were full of stalagtites and stalagmites, and paintings dating back to 20,000 BC. Think about it--to the people who made those paintings, we are peers of the Romans! Here's a postcard of the caves: they don't let you take pictures because of the potential for damage. This was without a doubt my highlight of the trip. I didn't know there were cave paintings in Andalucia, and I never thought I would have the opportunity to see them in my lifetime. Too cool.

We were very keyed up after the cave visit--it more than made up for any arguments that may have ensued over the stupidity of trying to travel 40km in five minutes over windy roads.

http://www.officeodyssey.com/012400.htm

1.3.00 -- 1.24.00

After a pleasant lunch in Ronda, we decided to drive further into the mountains to check out a giant cave which reputedly held rock paintings dating back to 25,000 years ago. This turned out to be an excellent decision. The cave itself was not run as a tourist site, but as a working archaeological site. Tours were led by a researcher who after admitting our smallish group (five others in addition to us), locked the gate to the cave (that's it to the left of Kristanne in that photo at right) and shut a heavy iron door. In the pitch darkness, he then proceeded to light two kerosene lanterns. One, he kept for himself. The other, he handed to one of our group who would bring up the rear. Then, descending into the darkness, we took off in single file. The cave itself was incredibly hot and humid, even though it was quite chilly outside. Water dripped off everything, lending an eerie feel to the proceedings as we squeezed through narrow passages and ducked under low ceilings. Things had definitely not been sanitized for tourists -- it was slipperier than Bill Clinton before the grand jury and the stairs were as unpredictable as Bob Dole in bed, all of it unlit other than by the flickering lanternlight. Hmm -- reading that last sentence, I'd say I've definitely been in Europe too long -- I'll start moving the references into the current presidential campaign any week now...I swear.

Rounding a curve after some ten minutes of walking, we saw our first cave painting. Kristanne has seen these kinds of things before (Kristanne seems to have seen everything before thanks to her comprehensive adolescence in Europe), but it absolutely took my breath away to see something created by human hands 25,000 years ago. These paintings actually are thought to even predate those at the more famous caves in Altamira. After marveling at the paintings for a while, I finally got the nerve up to ask the researcher a few questions in Spanish. This guy seemed to be related to that hotel desk clerk back in Cordoba, because (after telling me he had neither stockings nor food) he answered each and every question with an exasperated shrug of his shoulders and a disgusted, "We don't know, man. It was the Paleolithic era, for crying out loud. 25,000 years ago, okay!" Umm, yes. Okay. Nevermind.

Despite once again ticking off the Spanish, the cave tour was an unqualified success, topped off by a large painting of what was definitely a fish. I like fish. The only rough spot to the entire tour was the young British couple hacking up their lungs with rattling coughs in between slipping and falling on their rears. There's really nothing better than spreading germs in a warm, humid place for enriching everyone's health. Don't be surprised if the next killer flu bug comes from a small cave in Spain called Cueva de la Pileta after having mutated dangerously for decades in its warm, wet, environs. You heard it here first.

Cueva de la Pileta was a long way from both anywhere and nowhere, so we saddled up the Renault and pointed it northish. By the way, the fact that the contours of the Spanish coastline do not conform to strict N-S-E-W directions really irritates me -- it makes giving directions much more difficult than it needs to be. Therefore, by Office Odyssey fiat, I hereby dictate that the Iberian Peninsula is now a square with each of its coastlines proceeding along absolutely perfect N-S-E-W compass points. You can do that kind of thing when you've got your own web page -- I highly recommend it.

http://www.frommers.com/destinations/ronda/
1157020173.cfm?section_dirname=europe

Near Benaoján, Cueva de la Pileta (tel. 95-216-73-43), 15 1/2 miles (25km) southwest of Ronda, plus a 11/4-mile (2km) hard climb, has been compared to the Caves of Altamira in northern Spain where prehistoric paintings were discovered toward the end of the 19th century. In a wild, beautiful area known as the Serranía de Ronda, José Bullón Lobato, grandfather of the present owners, discovered this cave in 1905. More than a mile in length and filled with oddly and beautifully shaped stalagmites and stalactites, the cave was found to contain five fossilized human skeletons and two animal skeletons.

In the mysterious darkness, prehistoric paintings have been discovered depicting animals in yellow, red, black, and ocher, as well as mysterious symbols. One of the highlights of the tour is a trip to the chamber of the fish, containing a wall painting of a great black seal-like creature about 3 feet long. This chamber, the innermost heart of the cave, ends in a precipice that drops vertically nearly 250 feet.

In the valley just below the cave lives a guide who will conduct you around the chambers, carrying artificial light to illuminate the paintings. Plan to spend at least an hour here. Tours are given daily 10am to 1pm and 4 to 5pm. Admission, including the 1-hour tour, is 800 ptas. ($4.80) adults, 500 ptas. ($3) children.

You can reach the cave most easily by car from Ronda, but those without private transport can take the train to Benaoján. The cave, whose entrance is at least 4 miles (6.5km) uphill, is in the rocky foothills of the Sierra de Libar midway between two tiny villages: Jimera de Libar and Benaoján. The valley that contains the cave is parallel to the valley holding Ronda, so the town of Ronda and the cave are separated by a steep range of hills requiring a rather complicated detour to either the south or the north of Ronda, then doubling back.

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Woods/1317/
jdirksen.html

We spent almost seven weeks last summer driving through Spain. We learned a lot and have pictures to share of some of the places we could capture on film. There were many places, like the Pileta Cave, near Ronda, we could not capture on film. There, you are still allowed to enter and take a 90 minute tour of the cave that contain prehistoric wall paintings of bison, deer, horses, and "Chamber of the Fish" whose drawing of a huge fish is thought to be 15,000 years old! It was a memorable side trip!!

http://www.naturetrek.co.uk/dossiers/Spain%20-%20
Andalucia%202001.doc

A little over an hour's drive brings us to the quarter-mile long limestone Pileta Cave, with its huge stalagmites, cascading stalactites and strange Palaeolithic drawings. The cave was discovered by the owner's grandfather, and they are conscious that their first duty is to protect the drawings and geological features. The only lighting is paraffin lamps and this adds a slight air of mystery to the informal charm of the cave. For lunch, we drive on to a deep valley and a failed dam, where a cool north-facing cliff supports a beautiful rockgarden of Saxifraga reuteri, Muscari atlanticum, Silene andryalifolia, Wild Snapdragon and Sombre Bee Orchid, to name but a few. We then drive on to the mountain city of Ronda, surrounded by a ring of sierras and astride its famous gorge. It is one of the most charming towns in Andalucia and an hour or so exploring its cool narrow streets and old houses is well worth having to mix with other tourists for the first time. Crag Martins, Rock Sparrows, Choughs and Peregrines breed in the gorge.

http://www.vnet.es/costadelsolinfo/andalus/costasol/
ciudades/ronda/RONDA.HTM

The cavern is situated in the part of the Serranía de Ronda which stretches out along the right banks of the Guadiaro river. Due to its great speleological interest, its wealth of concretions, and above all to the excellent prehistoric features it contains, it was declared a national monument in 1924. It was discovered during the first years of the 20C, but only became famous after it was explored by an English officer. The entrance to the cave is situated at 700 meters above sea level land it leads into a fascinating underground kingdom of caves, stalactites and stalagmites. Numerous ceramics and utensils dating back to the Paleolithic and Neolithic eras have been found deep within the cave. Some black, ochre, yellow and red graffiti scribbled on the rock walls, constitute another interesting feature inside the cavern. Experts believe that these date back to over 240 centuries ago.

http://www.schnapp.org/BoSP2K/20000913.html

We sleep our way to the La Pileta cave. A short, steep climb in the heat, and we're in. What can I say? It's a cave. You've seen caves. You haven't? Well, they didn't allow us to take photos, so you won't see one here. Interesting features? This is one of the few caves with paleolithic petroglyphs that are still open to the public (by tour only, and with limited access). The petroglyphs date between 4,000 and 25,000 years ago. There are animal drawings and probable calendar markings, in ochre/fat and charcoal/fat. There are some nice "curtains" of calcite that ring at different frequencies. The last, largest chamber is approximately 40 feet across, 50 feet high, and stands above a similarly-sized chamber. The cave guide stomps his foot on the floor, and the chamber rings like a drum. He says we can relax -- the floor is around 5 meters thick.

http://www.caves.org/section/ccms/huppert/
Obituary-LX1.htm

Obituary for George N. Huppert

"...George was born in Brooklyn, New York and traveled many parts of the world from a very young age, as his father was in the U. S. Marine Corps and was stationed many places during George’s formative years, including Marine bases in Yokosuka, Japan; Rota, Spain; and many Marine bases around the U.S. While his father was stationed in Spain, George and his brother Frederick spent an entire summer traveling around the Mediterranean Sea, seeing much of Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. He was an Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts, and went on his first trip to a cave ("Cueva de la Pileta" which means "Cave of the Sink") near Ronda, Spain (in 1959 or 1960). George developed a passion for exploring caves, which then became his lifelong interest and area of professional research. George’s cave studies led him around the world to many unique locations. He made his 905th recorded trip into a cave on September 28, 2001 (having recorded his trips only since 1964)..."

http://www.mcreynolds-r-us.com/ronda.htm

The region around Ronda has been populated since the prehistoric ages. We visited the Cueva de la Pileta (Caves of the Pileta) which contained pottery, stone tools and remarkably cave drawings. Due to the immense sensitivity of these paintings only natural light could be used inside the cave, we where given lanterns and absolutely no pictures where allowed. I have scanned a postcard so you can see the paintings, but they are no where near the awesome feeling you get standing in this prehistoric cave looking at paintings that have withstood time for hundreds of thousands of years.

http://www.monachus.org/mguard06/06letter.htm

Problems in Spain

While on vacation in southern Spain, I travelled to a cave outside of Ronda (Cueva de la Pileta). Among the old paintings on walls was something that looked like a monk seal. The Spanish guide told me then that there were sightings of monk seals along the rocky coast between Algericas and Tarifa, but also that there were problems. Can you tell me what kind of problems?

Richard Åkesson, Sweden

Editor’s reply: Although effectively extinct in Spain, monk seal stragglers from Algeria and Mediterranean Morocco may make rare appearances in southern Spain. However, most observations in recent years have been around the Chafarinas Islands off Morocco and, to a lesser extent, the remote Isle of Alboran, lying virtually midway between Morocco and Spain. Intentional kills by fishers, accidental entrapment in fishing nets and collisions with boats have all been cited as causes of mortality. Lack of suitably protected and undisturbed habitat is blamed for discouraging the species from naturally recolonising the coasts of southern Spain.