Cantabria: Spain’s rugged northern coast

by Sean McLachlan on


Spain is a hugely popular tourist destination, but people tend to go along the same old, same old trail. Either they pop into Madrid for a couple of days to see the art before hitting the southern cities of Seville and Grenada, or they skip culture entirely and go straight to the Costa del Sol to soak up some rays. While both of these options have a lot going for them, they ignore the pleasures of Spain’s usually overlooked northern provinces.

One of the most commonly missed is Cantabria, a small province located on the northern coast of Spain between the Basque country to the east and Asturias to the west. Cantabria is part of “Green Spain”, where the Gulf Stream provides a mild climate with more rainfall than the rest of the country. Here you’ll find prairie, forest, rivers, and mountains. It seems like a different country than the wide open spaces of central Spain, or the Spaghetti Western feel of southern Spain. For the traveler wanting to see more than the usual attractions, Cantabria offers a lot.

Cantabria has both coastline and mountains. The rugged limestone Cantabrian Mountains are honeycombed with caves. Many were home to the region’s first inhabitants, who left their artwork on the walls. The most beautiful examples are in Altamira, which will soon reopen to visitors. A total of ten Cantabrian painted caves have been designated together as a World Heritage Site. Each one is unique. Altamira is like an art gallery full of fine paintings, while it would be easy to miss the paintings in the Cueva de las Monedas, where you’re distracted by the giant columns and colorful curtains of rippled stone that draw attention away from the little drawings and engravings of animals in a small side chamber. At Cueva de Covalanas, the painters obviously had an eye for color. Horses and deer have been painted on a bright red on a natural white background, and still look fresh more than 15,000 years later.

If you’re more into pretty rock formations than art in your caves, check out the 1.7 km (1.1 mile) long Soplao Cave, with its giant stalactites and stalagmites and other weird formations. It’s just one of dozens of caves you can visit. Experienced cavers can get permission to enter plenty more.

%Gallery-95921%The Romans liked the region too, and you can see a well-preserved Roman town at Juliobriga, where 2,000 year-old roads and buildings lie next to a Medieval church, showing the endurance of civilization in this part of Europe. Like the rest of Spain, Cantabria has plenty of Medieval and Renaissance relics, and you’ll find the usual assortment of churches and old houses. If you want castles though, head south. La Reconquista, the epic struggle between the Spaniards and the Moors for control of the Iberian peninsula, happened well south of here.

Cantabria offers a lot for hikers and climbers. The rugged peaks can soar well above 2,500 meters and the highest have snow year round. Contrast that with deep, lush valleys cut by swift-flowing streams, thick forests, and gentle valleys dotted with villages, and you have terrain to suit all tastes. The coastline is popular with sailors and windsurfers. If you’re willing to brave the chilly northern waters, there’s even surfing and swimming.

Of course, being on the coastline means there’s plenty of good seafood. Try rabas (fried squid), mejillones (mussels), and nécoras (a type of crab). Actually pretty much anything on the seafood menu will be fresh, tasty, and way cheaper than what you’d pay in Madrid. Landlubbers with a hearty appetite will like the cocido montañés, a stew with kidney beans, cabbage, chorizo, blood sausage, and bacon. As an aid to digestion, a big meal will generally be followed by a small glass of orujo, an eye-watering brew made from the skin and pulp of the grape.

Cantabria’s principal city and regional capital is Santander. It’s only a four-and-a-half hour train ride from Madrid on the national railway Renfe. Plenty of flights connect Santander to Spain’s principal cities, and Ryanair connects Santander to London’s Stansted and other major European airports. If you’re considering a trip to Spain, you might want to try something different and head north instead of south. You won’t meet the man from La Mancha, but you’ll have a different experience.

Photo courtesy Nicolás Pérez via Wikimedia Commons.

Altamira prehistoric painted cave to reopen

by Sean McLachlan on


One of Europe’s most breathtaking examples of prehistoric art will soon be accessible to the public.

The Paleolithic cave art at Altamira, in the Cantabria region of northern Spain, will soon be open to visitors. Altamira’s paintings of bison, deer, and other animals date from 14,000 to 20,000 years ago and are some of the best preserved of all prehistoric cave art. Even more intriguing are the hand prints by the artists themselves.

Cantabria’s Culture Ministry and Altamira’s board of directors have decided to reopen the site sometime next year. Access will be limited and they did not release details as to the number of people who will be allowed into the cave. Altamira has been closed since 2002 because even the few visitors allowed at that time affected the delicate environment that had preserved the paintings for so many millennia. Like at the famous Paleolithic cave of Lascaux in France, mold has started growing on some of the paintings. The circulation of air from people coming and going changes the temperature, and their breath changes the humidity.

Some archaeologists have criticized the move, saying that allowing visitors will increase the damage already done. If the plans to reopen Altamira go through, it could lead to a controversy similar to the one surrounding Lascaux, which has seen a group of scientists called the International Committee for the Preservation of Lascaux call for an independent investigation into how the cave is managed.

Photo of Altamira reproduction at Madrid’s Museo Arqueológico Nacional de España courtesy José-Manuel Benito.

Scotland promoting archaeological tourism

by Sean McLachlan on


Forget kilts, haggis, and caber tossing, Scotland’s tourism board wants you to delve into the country’s past.

Tony Robinson, star of Blackadder and Time Team, is the poster boy for Visit Scotland‘s new push for archaeological tourism. The tourism board has developed several five-day itineraries visitors can follow to explore Scotland’s 10,000 year heritage.

Scotland is an archaeological wonderland with stone circles, mysterious prehistoric forts, and medieval monasteries. Visit Scotland’s trails focus on the country’s northern and western islands. Despite their rough climates, island chains like the Orkneys, Shetlands, and Hebrides preserve evidence of advanced cultures. One of the most important sites is Skara Brae, pictured above, on Mainland (actually an island) in the Orkneys off the north coast of Scotland. This remarkably complete Neolithic village was founded about 5,000 years ago and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Built from local stone, the little homes are sunk into the earth to protect them from the elements. The interiors have shelves, hearths, and even stone furniture built into them. One even has a toilet with a drain.

The itineraries go beyond simply describing a series of sites. They also give information on how to get there and back, suggestions on where to eat, and historic hotels and B&Bs to stay in.

And don’t worry, you can still eat sheep’s hearts, wear man-skirts, and throw telephone poles.

Photo courtesy Dr. John F. Burka via Wikimedia Commons.

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Egyptian tomb discovery highlights overlooked archaeological wonder

by Sean McLachlan on


Archaeologists from Cairo University have discovered the tomb of a royal scribe named Ptah Mes, who worked for the pharaohs Seti I and Ramses II from 1203-1186 BC.

The tomb was originally discovered in the nineteenth century by artifact hunters who took the best things and left. They forgot where the tomb was and the desert sands covered it over once again. Archaeologists have rediscovered it near the Pyramid of Unas at Saqqara, visible on the far left in this image courtesy of Hajor via Wikimedia Commons.

Saqqara is often missed by tour groups whizzing through Egypt. While sites such as the Pyramids at Giza are perhaps more impressive, Saqqara is just as important to Egyptian history. It was a religious and mortuary center from the beginning of the Old Kingdom, through the Middle and New Kingdoms, and continued to be used during Egypt’s decline in the Roman Period.

It has the first pyramid ever built in Egypt–the Step Pyramid of Djoser (in the center of the above photograph) constructed from 2667 to 2648 BC. There are even earlier tombs at the site called mastabas, which are low buildings that look like benches. “Mastaba” is the Arabic word for bench. A later addition around about 1390 BC was the Serapeum, a tomb for holy bulls. The wide underground corridors and giant sarcophagi are highly atmospheric. Saqqara is only 30 km south of Cairo and easily reached by taxi or minibus.

Excavations at the tomb are continuing. Several long hallways and chapels have already been cleared of sand. The team hopes to discover the main chamber and a mummy the original discoverers reported seeing but said they didn’t take.

The Global Arab Network has published some intriguing photos of the tomb.

Archaeologists lose Charlemagne’s tomb

by Sean McLachlan on

After the fall of the Roman Empire, he was the first to reunite Western Europe. He ruled a vast kingdom that encompassed what is now France, Germany, Italy, Austria, and the Low Countries. The Pope even crowned him Emperor of the Romans. But while Charlemagne is famous around the world, very little is known about the real man.

There’s always been an air of mystery about Charlemagne, who ruled the Carolingian Empire from 800-814 AD. Historians aren’t sure where or when he was born, or who his siblings were. They can’t even agree on his native language.

Now it turns out he may never have been buried in his tomb.

Archaeologists studying the atrium of the Aachen Cathedral, Charlemagne’s traditional resting place, can’t find any evidence he was buried there. The oldest artifacts they found date to the 13th century. They weren’t expecting to find his bones, because a later ruler put them in the cathedral shrine, but they hoped to find some of his personal belongings or the original coffin to prove he’d been buried there.

This won’t stop Aachen cathedral from remaining popular for history junkies visiting Germany. The UNESCO World Heritage Site not only has Charlemagne’s bones, but also his throne and bragging rights for being the oldest cathedral in northern Europe. Once every seven years the priests bring out the cathedral’s collection of artifacts: the cloak of St. Mary, Christ’s swaddling clothes and loincloth, and the cloth that held the head of St. John the Baptist. Unfortunately you’ll have to wait until 2014 to see them again. Maybe by then archaeologists can tell us where Charlemagne was originally put to rest.