Human beings

Humans first appeared on the face of the Earth just over 300,000 years ago, followed by modern humans some 165,000 years ago.

In the Ecomuseo in Aras de los Olmos you can trace the footprints of the great history of mankind: the cave paintings in the Peña de las Cruces, the prehistoric monumental constructions –the Torrecilla–, the Iberian sites –including the impressive Castillo de la Muela–, the paths traced by the Romans, the remains of the Visigothic world, the trace of the Arabs –the Arab wall and the Torre del Cortijo–, the rich legacy of the Christian period –the church, the hermitages, the oven and the medieval mansions and coats of arms–, rites and traditions –festivals, communal arrangements, ancestral crafts, honey production, the wax mill– and the memory of the transition to modernity – the liberal walls during the Carlist wars or the Maquis refuges in the mountain meadows–.