Cave Paintings in Peru

 Located at Vilavilani in Tacna

Cave Paintings… a tourist attraction not well talked about in Peru but if you go looking there are some amazing places to go hiking and look at these ancient sites. Out of the 24 departments of Peru only two have been noted not have any petroglyphs and cave paintings (maybe they are still yet to be discovered), these are Tumbes and Ucayali. In this brief summary I shall mention only a few well-known prehistoric sites and where they are located. One Peruvian archaeologist Quirino Olivera over the span of two years found over 10,000 cave paintings dating back more than 6,000 years near the village of Tambolic, in the district of Jamalca, province of Utcubamba located in department Amazonas. In this region, Shupcha and Tambolic is known to have a high concentration of cave paintings. 

 The reason for the high concentration of cave paintings in Amazonas is because the thick jungle has kept them from being disturbed for thousands of years, a lot of cave paintings are left unprotected in Peru but many are still visible and if the region of Amazonas is too far for you the region of Ancash, very close to Lima has two notable caves called Ichic Tiog and Wacramarca. Ichic Tiog and Wacramarca are located in the Huascarán National Park and as many of you know Ancash is famous for the high mountains. Ichic Tiog is located 3,900 metres about sea level and if you feel adventurous Wacramarca is slightly higher up at an altitude of 4,100 metre above sea level. Not only does this region have cave painting it also has sites where you can see dinosaur foot prints which date back to the Cretaceous period. 

 Now heading down the south of Peru in Tacna you will find the Toquepala caves located 96 miles from the city of Tacna at an altitude of 2,700 metres above sea level, archaeologists have dated artifacts from around 7,650 BC. One archaeologist Jesus Gordillo addressed concerns about the Vilavilani cave in Tacna which has paintings dating back to 7,000 B.C, the main threats to the paintings are strong winds and heavy rains also there is the risk that such painting maybe damaged by people who enter the caves. There are many more to discover and there are tours to some of these especially the ones in Ancash.

By: GringoPerú