In the Basque Country there are a lot of important places, like Igeldo,kursal... and also a lot of important museums, like Chillida leku or the world famous Guggenheim... but did you know that in the Basque country you can also visit some pre-historic sights? The cave of Santamamiñe is located in Bizkaia and it is considered a culture icon. It is included in the list of World Heritage of UNESCO since July 2008. It is situated in the Basondo neighbourhood, at the foot of mount Erezoñar. Near this cave, we can find the Oma forest, which is an art work designed by Agustin Ibarrola, a Basque painter and squlptor. In Oma all the trunks of the pines are painted in bright colours creating different shapes.
The Santimamiñe caves, were found in 1916 by some kids who were playing around the cave. They went up into the cave and they found the room with the paintings. They immediately warned their teacher and the authorities. After the discovery there some studies were made and abundant material was found. That is when they starded to study the cave paintings. In the las two decades of the 20th century, they made some studies to determine the damage that the paintings had suffered. These studies, determined that the visists to the cave had to be limited so that environmental conditions would not destroy the drawings. In conclusion, they limited the entry to 75 people.
Santamamiñe cave is very beatiful, it is 365 metre long and, inside the cave, there are a lot of stalactites and stalagmites forming weird figures. Unfortunately it can no longer be visited
because they closed it in 2006. However, if you are planning a visit to our country you could always take a walk in the area and visit Ibarrola's Oma forest.
BYEBYE!
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