Cueva de Nerja

History

Passed on January 11, 1959, when five young Maro andNerja men (Navas Francisco Montesinos, Miguel Zorrilla, Manuel Munoz, Jose LuisBarbero, and Jose Miguel Torres Cardenas) decided to go bat hunting in a pit,which was then known as “Mina,” and where, in the evening, you could see largeflocks of bats.

Once they entered this cave, one of the men noticed a gentlestream of moist air Looking with the flashlight, he saw that it came from anarrow stream that could not be split across two stalactites because it wasblocked.

These men decided to return the next day, carrying a fewtools with which they managed to break the stalactites. One of the five boyswent up fireplace chimney and jumped to the ground. From here alerted theothers, who were in another narrow passage, and they reached a large gallery,where the light of from their torches went out.

They could see that they were not the first ones to havebeen in this cave. They were very surprised to find skeletons lying around,along with some ceramic bowls. Quite scared, they decided to return and tellfamily, friends, and teachers of their discoveries.

On the second visit a doctor came with a photographer, whotook photographs that were published about one hundred days later in the localnewspaper, Sur de Malaga. The cavesthen became known as the cavity of the cave before it received its current name,“Cueva de Nerja.”

This step led to another great discovery, called High andNew galleries, whose magnificent rooms, formations, and remnants of life stillcannot be viewed by visitors.

Throughout these years the Cueva de Nerja has not ceased itsactivity and concern for the cave, creating the Scientific Committee(geologists, biologists, archeologists, paleontologists, etc.), which researches,conducts conferences, studies photographic enhancements, and is in charge of touristfacilities, cultural activities such as the Festivals of Music and Dance, and contactsand exchanges with other major caves.

Finally, the Nerja Cave now has a range offacilities and services that make it a very comfortable and pleasant place to stay.It has a good number of covered and guarded parking spots, restaurants, cafes,bars, services, gardens, picnic and rest areas, a souvenir shop, and even a busline.

Fitting

Once the cave had been discovered, there were variousinvestigations. The cave was talked about by the local press when it becameaware of the importance for tourism and science.

The Delegation of Archaeological Excavations in Malaga tried to locate theoriginal entry or a more viable access because the pit of the mine entrance uponthe discovery was difficult to access.

The quest for access was made by attempting entry through variousgalleries until one of them appeared as a reference point of the surface of thethick root of a tree, which was a juniper, and enabling four meters below thelocation of a new entry.

Later, using an auger to remove a large rock, theydiscovered it had prevented entry for thousands of years. They also conductedthe first excavations. The cave opened for sightseeing in 1960. One year later,on June 15, 1961, the cave was declared a Historic-Artistic Monument.

An archaeologist subsequently made several expeditions tofind the entire cavity and various galleries until, in 1969, he discovered anarrow passage in the right area and almost on the roof of the hall ofCataclysm.

Surface of the Cave

The total area of the cave is 35,484 m², and the totalvolumeis 64,379 m³.

Cueva de Nerja

There are three main areas:

The tourist galleries (9.371m ² area, volume 106.286m ³)

Room of ghosts, or Chamber of Bethlehem

Room of cascades

The upper galleries Room of the columns of Hercules, orthe immensity Chamber

The new galleries (recently discovered), or Chamber of the Spear

Room from the mountain