Before I really start my "review" of this site I have to anticipate that I am a great fan of rock art sites. I think they are sometimes among the most important cultural sites since they open to us a window into a time of the human brain of which we wouldn't know anything at all otherwise: It offers glimpses into human hunt practice but mainly into cult and artistry. I think the fantastic paintings at Chauvet are possibly the most important artworks of mankind considering their age, skill and originality. And while I think the Ice Cave Art offers almost nothing to the visitor who visits the caves the artwork linked to it is not only hugely important but equally exciting. 

On the other hand this site must be one of the worst on the list for several reasons: The included artwork is not only very simple, yes primitive compared to the mentioned sites and many others but it is also much, much younger. Finally it includes 758 locations spread over half the country. If you need 758 locations to assert OUV you can imagine how weak each one of them must be. So how should it be visited? When should it be counted as visited? While I normally try to visit each element of a site that contributes to its OUV here it is hard to find out what you can visit at all. 

I made my first attempt to approach this site when I drove from Tarragona to Poblet. On the way there is the very pretty historic town of Montsant. It has an almost complete city walls and a museum called "Centre d'Interpretació d'Art Rupestre de les Muntanyes de Prades". I knew it isn't part of the site or core zone but it seemed to good to miss. Since public transport is rare in this area this was a reason to rent a car for the day. When I approached the town I found a big sign at the roundabout announcing the rock art and the world heritage status of the town (?). Since I had found very little information about the museum I didn't know what to expect. I found an empty entrance until I nice lady appeared who seemed rather surprised about my visit. It was hard to communicate with her since my Spanish is bad and she didn't speak English (or French or Italian). I managed to buy a ticket and was happy to find a surprisingly large museum. But everything was only in Catalan! While I can read Castellan decently and understand most of it visiting this museum in Castellan would take the whole day. I asked her about any information in English or even Castellan but there was none, only a few general sentences about the museum. Since I was there already I walked through the halls and they seemed really well done: The tell the whole story: the geology and history of the area, about rock art in the area and globally, there are nice reproductions of rock walls with painting and engravings in full size, copies of other early human artifacts. There were, as far as I could figure out, no original artifacts or hardly any but it was really thoroughly and beautifully done. But only in Catalan. I find this hard to understand: They make a big deal about their world heritage status, they make a nice museum to attract tourists  but then they display everything only in the local language that even people from other regions of Spain hardly understand? Somebody in that tourism department needs to be replaced perhaps... 

On the UNESCO map of this site you can see that there are several inscribed sites to the west of Montsant but I found no way to reach them by car and I couldn't even find any walking guides online or in the town. 

Next I drove shortly to the town of L'Espluga: Here you can find a big cave museum called "Coves de l'Espluga" where they found remarkable engravings quite recently. But the engravings are very delicate and cannot be visited. Who knows, perhaps they could one day be the 759th location of this site. 

The only site in Catalonia that I found out I could visit relatively easy by public transport was the Pedra de les Orenetes near Barcelona that Ilya had pointed out before. This is quite a tempting site since it is in a forest with several neolithic sites though this is the only one inscribed. I searched for information on the web about a trail but I found only one of about 30km in lengths which seemed a bit too long. So I printed out a map and marked the most interesting looking places. When you take the bus from Barcelona be aware there are just two or three buses per day and only on weekdays so you have to coordinate very well depending on how much time you want to spend there. I found a bus very early in the morning leading to the closest bus stop "Entrada Urb. Les Roquetes", taking a bit more then an hour from Barcelona. Now I had about two hours until the return bus which seemed plenty. From the bus stop I walked about 15 minutes along a street. There are no useful signs, you really need a cell phone with a map. The first Dolmen I addressed was Dolmen de Can Gol. It was a very steep approach but easy to find but I realized that it was in somebodies private garden! It is quite a big dolmen and there are even steps leading to it from the street but now it is fenced off and you can only peak at it through the twigs. From there I followed the Carrer de Can Gol which should lead to Can Gol II but it leads to a dead end. You have to take the Carrer Camí de la Roca Foradada which should lead to the rock of the same name which I didn't find. But it leads you on into the forest and there you find the first signpost marking a prehistoric trail which may be the 30km hike I had read about. I did find Can Gol II which seems a small version of Can Gol I that I had seen before. Just three stones are left here. From here was a few hundred meters to Pedra De Les Creus, a rock with cross engravings from different not totally clear periods. Even more then this nice rock I admired the huge rocks around it and this gave me a clear idea why ancient people were attracted by this area: The rocks are not only big and impressive but also polished, I don't know if glacially of fluvially. I retreated a bit and went south for my most important goal: The Pedra de les Orenetes. When I saw from far I was already struck by the rock itself: a really huge foundling in a group of other big rocks, with seal like round shapes and partly floating above the ground. This strikes even to a modern human with awe. I walked around, crawled on top and underneath this magnificent rock and I even found scant remnants of red paint. Some resembled a wave, others simple human shapes. There are supposedly more underneath the rock but I couldn't find them. I wondered anyway what paint they used that anything at all would be still visible after about 10'000 years in the open air. 

After that I had some time left and tried to find another Dolmen, the Dolmen von Céllecs which looks very interesting and seems on the map just about 500m away. But first I took the wrong angle, finding at least the pretty Piedra de hipopótamo, then I returned and searched for another path to the Dolmen. When I found a promisingly looking path it went not only steeply uphill, it also went on and on and took turns all the time.  Nonetheless the Dolmen never came into sight. Finally I gave up to catch my bus. I took again a slightly wrong direction and in the end I had to run to my bus and reached it soaked despite the February temperatures. 

It would have really liked to walk around this magical mountain forest for one or two hours more but that was impossible with public transport and I didn't want to stay until late afternoon. Two hours are plenty though to see the main rock and a few around it. For more one should probably come by car. But honestly that rock alone was worth the big excursion and it could be so even without the pale paintings and the inscription.