First published: 03/06/22.

Ammon Watkins

Rock Art Of The Mediterranean Basin

Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin (Inscribed)

Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin by Ammon Watkins

I can understand this one having a poor rating as it really shouldn't take 700+ locations to make your point. But with that many locations we are going to need a lot of reviews to figure out which ones to make an effort for.

Feb 2022, I found myself once again visiting the inlaws in Benidorm. I'll be the first to admit that as a hub it has to be one of the worst spots in the country as a base for visiting WHS but there seems to be numerous rock art locations scattered about nearby.

Rewind to 7 years ago and we attempted to visit La Sarga just outside of Alcoy but it has been fenced off. As tempted as I was to jump the fence and look on my own I am glad I didn't. This time around we came prepared. The site at La Sarga is accessible by free tours on Sundays nearly year round (Feb-Nov). You are supposed to make a reservation online for one of the hourly tours (10-1pm). The group size is 25 max but it was all so informal on site that I think you could just show up and join in. I was surprised at the popularity of the site on a random Feb Sunday with other Spaniards making up the rest of the group. The guide only spoke Spanish and I didn't understand most of it but the rock art there is about 7300 years old and without him I would not have found the art scattered about. The guide had a book with copies of all the paintings on site to really help you make out the details and we could get as close as we wanted without touching them. Most of it is exposed to the elements and very weathered and hard to make out unfortunately. They are also quite small so had I jumped the fence I would have missed most and made out very little of what I found. This would be another negative review. Instead, I have hope for this WHS. The detail was actually very impressive despite how small it was. The deer (photo) was one of the best but there are also hunters with wounded animals stuck with arrows and dripping blood, trees with fruit scattered around them, etc

The site is very accessible, about an hour drive from Benidorm or even less from Alicante. There is a small dirt parking lot past the tiny village of La Sarga and a 200m walk to the entry gate at the fence. From there it's a short uphill hike to the artwork. The guide told us that there is another location in the area that is even better called Art Rupestre del Pla de Petracos. Hopefully next time I'm in the area I can convince the inlaws to skip another siesta and make it out there.

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