| Cueva de las Manos World Heritage Park | |
|---|---|
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Established |
28 August 2016 |
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Location |
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Nearest city |
Victoria, Patagonia |
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Governing body |
Diamanto Parks Council, |
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Type of park |
Natural, Human Heritage |
The Cueva de los Manos World Heritage Park is a World Heritage Park located in western Diamanto, just south of the Aloian state of Patagonia. Cueva de las Manos was originally designated a protected wilderness area under the Nature Preservation Resolution. However, in 2016 the Aloian delegation to the Esamir General Assembly introduced successful legislation, the World Heritage Park Resolution, to convert the park into a World Heritage Park.
Features[]
The park gets its name (Spanish: Cueva de las Manos; English: Cave of the Hands) from a series of caves with paintings of human hands. The art in the cave dates to 5,000 to 3,000 years ago. Several waves of people occupied the caves and early artwork has been carbon-dated to ca. 3300 years before present. The age of the paintings was calculated from the remains of bone-made pipes used for spraying the paint on the wall of the cave to create silhouettes of hands.
The park also features the picturesque San Gabriel and Pinturas river valleys. The park also contains the northern extremity of the Coastal Range of the Andes Mountains, in addition to the Interior Andes which pass through the eastern end of the park into Guayaquil and Argentina.
The most popular entrances to the park are located just south of Victoria, Patagonia, and Colombia, Patagonia. The Victoria entrance provides access to the scenic coastal regions of the park while the Colombia entrance goes into the San Gabriel and Pinturas river valleys. The valley of the Pinturas River goes to the actual caves that give Cueva de los Manos its name.