Europe ain’t shiny and new. In fact, that it is so old is one of the reasons we upstart Yankees go. While American sites at Cahokia and the Chaco Canyon are as impressive as Stonehenge, they flung over such a wide area that getting there is a bit of an effort; in Europe, you can easily stumble onto an ancient whatsit in every town.
There are a lot of reasons to visit Portugal—the wine! The food! The beach!—but this time around I’m putting on my Indiana Jones hat and highlighting one of the most fascinating archeological regions in the country, Vila Nova de Foz Côa.
In the north of the country, the site (or sites, rather) lay along the Côa River, a tributary of the Douro, and must have been, at some point in the recesses of time, one of the most important places in Europe. Riddled with caves, Foz Côa, near the Spanish border, is one of the largest repositories of Stone Age art on the continent, so much so that egg-heady French archeologist Jean Clottes heralded the Côa valley as “the biggest open air site of paleolithic art in Europe, if not in the world.”
Lascaux, in France, gets the king’s portion of publicity, but the cave you enter is actually a replica of the real Lascaux (so many people were entering the cave they rose the humidity and damaged the paintings). At Foz Côa, pictographs are everywhere you look; 23 sites alone have been identified so far, and there’s every reason to believe more are still hiding somewhere in the countryside. In the caves are painting, on boulders and cliff faces are engravings. In archeological circles, outside sites like Foz Côa are far more rare than cave paintings, and the sheer amount of pictographs of horses, wild cattle, deer, goats, and trippy zig-zag patterns suggest ancient Europeans regarded Foz Côa as extremely important—although why it was is anybody’s guess today.
Today a UNESCO World Heritage site, Vila Nova de Foz Côa is one of those great gems of Europe that nobody takes the time to see, which is really cool because you can go and not pinball between tours. You can even get away with envisioning yourself the intrepid explorer hunting for the next great find. And who knows? You just might.
Now, rest assured I’m not sending you to a place where there is a really cool archeological museum and nothing else for miles. The Douro Valley is Ground Zero for the true tipple of Portugal, port. Wineries are everywhere. Find yourself a little village hotel, which are also everywhere, and revel that you appreciated Europe for the ancient wonder it is. Steele Luxury Travel can assist in all of your travel planning to Portugal including discount business class airfare! Visit www.SteeleTravel.com for more details!