Gran Canaria: Risco Caído declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site

The cultural landscape of Risco Caído and the Sacred Mountains of Gran Canaria are now listed as a World Heritage Site.

As part of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention, this island government has decided to include the cultural landscape of Risco Caído and the Sacred Mountains of Gran Canaria on the World Heritage List - now the fascinating place has been declared a World Heritage Site.

The cultural landscape stretches across an extensive mountainous area in the center of the island and contains unique sights in the colossal Caldera de Tejeda, a "petrified storm", as the writer Miguel de Unamuno called the rock and cave landscape. It is an outstanding example that represents the odyssey of the earth's island cultures and contains the traces of a unique cultural process that has developed in isolation from the Amazigh (Berber) roots in North Africa for over 1500 years.

Heaven and earth come together in this place. Risco Caído and the Sacred Mountains is a landscape where settlers carved their spiritual perception into the rocks and created spectacular, complex cave settlements on cliffs and rocks. It is an ancient tradition that remains alive and has made the cave house a symbol of pride and identity.

Cave no. 6 of the archaeological site is particularly impressive in Risco Caído: it could have served as an astronomical calendar for the indigenous people. Between the equinoxes in spring and autumn, a fascinating play of light can be seen in the cave through an opening in its dome-shaped ceiling. The cave was discovered in 1995.

Further information at www.grancanaria.com