Madrid, Spain. There's a famous cave, the Altamira cave in Cantabria that has fabulous cave paintings. Unfortunately, it is today inaccessible to prevent visitors bringing in moisture that was slowly degrading these ancient paintings. Ancient, very ancient, the cave paintings were made between 35,000 and 13,000 years ago. The cave was closed after that period by a landslide, until it was discovered sometime in the late 19th century due to construction work.
The cave used to be open to visitors, but it is now indeed closed. There is a nice replica in a museum in Cantabria (link), although I visited another replica in Madrid, in the Archaeological Museum (link).
Not the original, but much recommended. It is also very, very cool. And the replica and the museum is extremely nicely done.
The replicate cave room featured a replica of a part of the cave's ceiling. Conveniently a mirror was placed below it, so you could view it looking up or down:
And the paintings were ... spectacular! This is I guess why they originally didn't believe they were as old as they were:
They also had a map of the original cave, showing as well what part the replica covers:
Entrance to the cave replica is straight from the museum's front yard. No need to even get a ticket from inside, at least on the day I visited. Not sure if that's the case on all weekdays...
Video:
Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, urban exploration stories from theurbanexplorer.net, and other underground stories from planetcaver.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot, TGR. Photos and text (c) 2025 by Jari Arkko, except where otherwise indicated. All rights reserved.
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