Know the cave of La Araña!
Know how and where our ancestors lived in the cave in La Araña. Neanderthals in Spain.

03 July 2022

How to visit the cave of La Araña

There is an archaeological complex you can visit where the Neanderthals lived – La Araña, located 10 minutes driving from the city of Málaga. A massive excavation campaign began there in the 1940s, and there is still enough work for a few generations (as the guide claimed).

From the entire complex you can currently visit a cave where our ancestors lived. It is much smaller than the cave of Ardales, but the total tour will last 3 hours, so be prepared for that. The tour must be booked at direccion@complejohumo.org, the price is 10 € per person. The tour of prehistoric times starts from the museum, which is located 10-minute walking from the cave itself (in front of the factory). There are no strict restrictions for the visit, and it is suitable even for children.

Museum of La Araña

The museum tour lasts almost an hour and a half ( in Spanish language it will be conducted by a real paleontologist who is really passionate about his work). Ask about tours in English separately. The coast zone used to be the sea button, and traces of multiple once living organisms were found here (the museum has a separate stand with their fossils, and you can touch them). The museum is very interesting and gives you a detailed insight into man evolution starting from the Australopithecus.

History of La Araña

The settlement of the territory of Malaga by prehistoric groups occurred in early times, in the era of the Lower Paleolithic. Excavations of La Araña complex revealed signs of habitation during the Middle Paleolithic with Mousterian industries, the Upper Paleolithic, as well as the Neolithic and Eneolithic eras.

Scientists found many fragments of alleged Neanderthal remains during the excavations (under study). There is no complete documentation of the remains of representatives of numerous Mousterian industries at the moment, and it is assumed that they belonged to Neanderthals, judging by the trend of European studies.

Explore the museum during the tour, because you will not have time for that after, you will need to rush to the cave (you can walk or use your own vehicle).

The cave of La Araña

The advantage of visiting the cave at any time of the year is that the cave maintains a constant and very comfortable temperature for people (it was not in vain why they chose it as a home). At the entrance we can see an obvious place for a fire, however, as the archaeologist guide stated, this fire was not intended for cooking, as they had a place outside for that. The fire was meant to gather all the family members around.

Next, you will go deeper into the cave, where you will be shown a bedroom and a place for supposed children’s games. As an experiment, you will sit in silence and darkness here (although for the Spanish people this is an unrealistic task). According to the guide, this cave was a meeting place for yogis who were looking for a quiet place to meditate in order to turn off their minds.

An interesting exhibit of the cave: a trace from a rope. It may seem strange to find a rope here, but I researched the topic, and there were studies that revealed that the Neanderthals were able to weave ropes! I leave a link to the source.