Type: Cave – Sanctuary of Rupestral Art – Paleolithic and Necropolis.
Access: National Road 370 (Escoural-Évora)

Owner: State (connected with the IPPAR)

Use
Former: Religious, funeral, housing (external village).
Present: Historical and cultural landmark
 
Characteristics
Description: The Cave – formation of crystalline metamorphosed limestone composed by a large room and multiple galleries – it has several levels of human occupation. The oldest dates back from 50.000 years ago (Middle Paleolithic) and it served as shelter to nomad populations. In the Upper Paleolithic it was transformed into a sanctuary as the paintings and pictures with zoomorphic and geometrical representations confirm. In the final Neolithic it was used as funeral necropolis. In the outside there are still remains of a rupestrial sanctuary of the paleolithic, of a calcolithic village, and at about 1000ft a tholos. 

Chronology:  Middle Paleolithic (50.000 b.p.); Upper Paleolithic; Neolithic; Calcolithic
 
Classified as National Monument (decree nr. 45327 of 1963)