La Zarza Rock Carvings

Tree heather

One of the best archaeological sites on La Palma is La Zarza and La Zarzita, in Garafía.

You have to walk, but it's a beautiful stroll through woods of heather and bayberry trees. Yes, heather is a tree here - see the top photo.

The whole walk takes about an hour, and first bit of the path is the steepest. It's clearly signposted.


Rock carvings at La Zarza, Garafia, La Palma

You reach La Zarza first. Here there is a cave with rock carvings around the entrance. The 29 carvings themselves are low relief swirls and meanders. they are definitely pre-Hispanic, made by the Benawara at least 500 years ago. They were only discovered in 1941.


Rock carvings at La Zarza, Garafia, La Palma

They remind me a little of cup and ring stones on the Yorkshire Moors, only these are much more elaborate. It must have taken hours and hours to produce the designs, hammering on the rock "canvas" with another rock.

La Zarzita is a short walk away, and has 18 carvings.


The woods at La Zarzita, Garafia, La Palma

La Zarza and La Zarzita are the most spectacular, but there are lots of similar sites on the island. Archeologists disagree on the meaning of the carvings. Certainly they're nearly always found near water and/or pasture for goats, so most of the explanations focus on fertility and water cults.


Rock carvings at La Zarzita, Garafia, La Palma

Most visitors arrive by car. The car park is signposted, just off the main road around the north of the island, between La Mata and Llano Negro. Entrance is free to residents of Garafía, and 1.80€ for everyone else, and includes a small museum. In summer they open from 11 am - 7 pm and in winter, from 11 am to 5 pm.

There's another famous archeological site at Belmaco in Mazo. That has an easier, less beautiful walk, more inhabited caves, and a larger museum, but the rock carvings are smaller and there are fewer of them.


The woods at La Zarzita, Garafia, La Palma

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Belmaco Cave

Belmaco cave, Mazo

Before the Spanish invasion, Belmaco Cave was the home of the kings of Mazo. The first rock carvings were found in the 18th century, which was the start of archaeology in the Canary Islands. Today, it's open to the public. The entrance where you pay (€1.50 for a resident adult) is also a handicraft shop. A little farther inside, there's a small, two-story building housing various artefacts, like shell spoons and bone punches, and lots of ceramics. Ceramics survive better than leather work, after all.


Benahorita artefacts, Belmaco museum

After that you follow the path under the road to the main cave, with its rock carvings. By the way, that little square construction inside the cave is much more recent. It's an oven for drying figs.

There's a path around the site, with nine more small caves and display boards explaining things like which kind of tree is in front of you, and what it used to be used for. It's a nice stroll of about a kilometre, but in some places the paths are steep and rough, so it's not suitable if you have serious trouble walking.

There's a legend associated with the cave. The old canton of Tigalate (now Mazo) was ruled by two brothers, Juguiro and Garehagua. Their sister, Arecida, was beautiful and charming, and she fell in love with a brave and handsome warrior called Tinamarcín. Of course princesses couldn't usually marry for love, but her brothers thought well of Tinamarcín too, and so they started to prepare for the wedding of the year. All the island's royalty was expected to come.

And then Guillen Peraza arrived at the head of a party of would-be invaders. Luckily for the Benahoita, he was inexperienced, and they drove him off to LA Gomera. Tinamarcín was particularly brave and skilful in the battle, and Arecida loved him more than ever.

But Guillen Peraza came back just a few months later, and this time he brought people from La Gomera and El Hierro with him. They worked as interpreters,and fought alongside the Spanish. One of them, Jacomar from El Hierro, was dazzled by Arecida's beauty. But he was a cruel man, and when he found that she would never give him her love, he tried to take it by force. She resisted him, and he murdered her with his knife.

Tinamarcín swore vengance, but Juguiro and Garehagua got to Jacomar first. They killed him and left his body for the vultures, and Tinamarcín was left with nothing more than memories of his love.

The cave is on the lower road from Mazo towards Fuencaliente, at km 7, near Lomo Oscuro. It opens Monday - Saturday 10:00 am - 18:00 pm and Sundays 10:00 am - 14:00 pm, Tel. / Fax: 922.44.00.90 (but I'm not sure how well they speak English).

They have a website in Spanish here with a map.

Did you know that I have a Google map for La Palma? Go to http://maps.google.com/ and search for "la palma canary islands". So far, I've marked 24 places of interest.


Rock engraving in front of the main cave, Belmaco

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Prehistoric Rock Carvings

The people who lived here before the Spanish invasion in 1493 were called Benauaritas. Since they didn't have writing, not all that much is known about them, and what there is comes from the invaders. Not exactly an unbiased source!

Their technology was pretty basic, maybe because the climate in La Palma is kind enough not to encourage things like weaving. They wore skins, lived mostly in caves, herded goats and grew barley. They also collected things like shellfish and wild dates. There were fourteen tribes on La Palma, and each tribe had its own territory. The modern municipalities roughly correspond to the old kingdoms. Much of their history and culture has been lost.

But they did leave behind rock carvings. These are inside the Caldera de Taburiente, but there are far more spectacular ones at La Zarza (in Garafía) and Belamaco (in Mazo). Archaeologists believe that they poured a libation of goats' milk onto the stone, which would flow down the channel, making its shape stand out clearly.

I have a very strange mind. It looks to me as though the stone is imprisoned, presumably because it's dangerous.

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