Prehistoric and archaeological sites in Spain
Aqueduct of Segovia
The Roman aqueduct of Segovia was built, probably in the 1st century BC, to bring water from the mountains to the hilltop settlement of Segovia. It was a massive feat of engineering as it ran for around 15 km and had to cross a wide valley before it entered the city. It was used to bring water to the town until the 19th century. Today the aquduct is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site that also includes the old city and ...
Founded: 50 BCE |
Location:
Segovia, Spain
Arabian Baths
Tucked away underneath a private house about halfway along the Carrera del Darro are the oldest and best-preserved Arabic baths in Spain. The Banuelo dates from around the 11th century and its elegant Moorish archways and domed ceilings are still amazingly intact after a thousand years (although the baths themselves have long since vanished). Undoubtedly, after the Alhambra and the Generalife, this is the greatest surv ...
Founded: 11th century |
Location:
Granada, Spain
Roman Theatre
El Teatro Romano is the oldest survived monument in Málaga City; it is situated at the foot of the famous Alcazaba fortress. The theatre was built in the first century BC, under Emperor Augustus, and was used until the third century AD. Subsequently it was left to ruin for centuries, until the Moors settled in Andalucía. In 756-780AD the amphitheatre was used as a quarry by the Moorish settlers , to excavate the stone u ...
Founded: 100-0 BCE |
Location:
Málaga, Spain
Caliphal Baths
The Caliphal Baths are Arab baths in Córdoba. They are situated in the historic centre which was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1994. The hammam ('baths) are contiguous to the Alcázar andalusí; ablutions and bodily cleanliness were an essential part of a Muslim's life, mandatory before prayer, besides being a social ritual. The baths were constructed in the 10th century, under the Caliphate of Al-Hakam II ...
Founded: 10th century AD |
Location:
Córdoba, Spain
Cave of Hercules
The Cave of Hercules is a subterranean vaulted space dating back to Roman times located in the alley of San Ginés. The cave is under the Church of San Ginés. The structure was likely constructed in the time of the Roman Empire, probably towards the second half of the 1st century, when it was used as a water reservoir. It is located in the east corner of the current courtyard and was built in two construction phase ...
Founded: 0-100 AD |
Location:
Toledo, Spain
Roman Theatre
The Roman theatre of Cádiz is an ancient structure discovered in 1980. The theatre, which was likely built during the 1st century BC and was one of the largest ever built in the Roman empire, was abandoned in the 4th century and, in the 13th century, a fortress was built on its ruins by order of King Alfonso X of Castile. The theatre featured a cavea with a diameter of more than 120 meters, and could house some 10,000 s ...
Founded: 1st century BCE |
Location:
Cádiz, Spain
Roman Temple of Córdoba
The construction of Roman temple in Córdoba began during the reign of Emperor Claudius (41-54 AD) and ended some forty years later, during the reign of Emperor Domitian (81-96 CE). Presumably it was dedicated to the imperial cult. The temple underwent some changes in the 2nd century, reforms that coincide with the relocation of the colonial forum. In the area had already been found architectural elements, such as drums ...
Founded: c. 50 AD |
Location:
Córdoba, Spain
Medina Azahara
Medina Azahara ("the shining city") is the ruins of a vast, fortified Andalus palace-city built by Abd-ar-Rahman III (912–961), the first Umayyad Caliph of Córdoba. Located on the western outskirts of Córdoba, it was the de facto capital of al-Andalus as the heart of the administration and government was within its walls. In 2018, the site was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Built beginning in 936- ...
Founded: 936 AD |
Location:
Córdoba, Spain
Baños árabes de Ronda
Baños árabes de Ronda is a thermal building of the Arab time, the best conserved of its kind at the Iberian Peninsula. It is located at the old arab quarter of the city, being the formerly outside quarter of the arab medina (city) of Ronda. The bahts were built near the Arroyo de las Culebras (snakes" stream), a perfect place in order to be provided of water, which was moved by a waterwheel, in an current perfect ...
Founded: 13th century |
Location:
Ronda, Spain
Castro de Vigo
The O Castro site is Vigo’s archaeological site par excellence: this was the origin of what is now the largest city in Galicia, between the second century BC and the third century AD. When you step on the stones of this museum site, the O Castro de Vigo. A Orixe da cidade, you’ll discover where the first inhabitants of Vigo lived. The Castro is a 1 mile² archaeological site that includes the reconstruction ...
Founded: 2nd century BCE |
Location:
Vigo, Spain
Castro de Santa Trega
Castro de Santa Trega is a Galician fort and archaeological site located on the hillsides of Mount Santa Trega. The site is strategically located overlooking the mouth of the river Miño. Belonging to the Castro culture, it is the most emblematic and visited Galician fort. Santa Trega is a ‘Castro-Roman’ settlement. It was inhabited between 100 BC and 100 AD, in a period when the process of Romanisation of the northw ...
Founded: 100 BCE |
Location:
A Guarda, Spain
Roman Remains of Pollentia
Pollentia was founded by the consul Qintus Caecilius Metellus in 123 BC in the strategic location between the bays of Pollenca and Alcudia. It was the most important city in the Balearics duing the Roman period and covered an area of 15-20 hectares. This area suffered a devastating fire in the 3rd century AD, but the city was not depopulated, since the construction of a fortification in the fifth century AD has been docu ...
Founded: 123 BC |
Location:
Alcúdia, Spain
l'Argentina Navetas
Biniac has two circular burial navetas that were used around 1400 B.C. and are from an earlier period than the long rectangular constructions like the Es Tudons and Rafal Rubí navetas. The east naveta was built on bedrock and has only one oval-shaped chamber, accessed via a perforated stone slab. Several slabs that had fallen over were found inside. The west naveta is also oval-shaped and the wall on the south side has d ...
Founded: 1400 BCE |
Location:
Alaior, Spain
Caños de Carmona Roman Aqueduct
The Caños de Carmona (Pipes of Carmona) are the remains of a Roman aqueduct 17.5 kilometres long, later rebuilt by the Almohads, which connected the cities of Carmona and Seville, and which was fully operational until its demolition in 1912. It was primary constructed from bricks, and consisted of approximately 400 arches standing on pillars, with additional upper arcade sections in some places. It is believed to be the ...
Founded: 68-65 BCE |
Location:
Seville, Spain
Cerro del Bú
Predating Roman Toledo, this small but steep hill on the less populated side of the Río Tajo is sprinkled with Bronze Age remains overlain with vestiges of a 10th-century Moorish fort. A path leads down from the main road where there’s an explanatory board and site map. It’s best integrated into a visit to the Mirador del Valle viewpoint nearby.
Founded: 10th century |
Location:
Toledo, Spain
La Olmeda
The palatial Late Antique Roman villa at La Olmeda was built in several stages, beginning in the second quarter of the fourth century and extending in use at least to the end of the fifth. The villa complex centers on the elite quarters of rigorously symmetrical disposition, wherein twenty-seven rooms, twelve with mosaic floors, are disposed around a central patio crossed with mosaic paths in geometric patterns and ...
Founded: 350-400 AD |
Location:
Pedrosa de la Vega, Spain
Caviclum
Caviclum was an Roman living site dating back to the 1st or 2nd century BCE. The latest foundings from the Antiquity age date from the 6th century AD.
Founded: 2nd century BCE |
Location:
Torrox, Spain
Lanzada
Lanzada is an archaeological site is composed of a castro (hillfort settlement), a necropolis, a medieval fortification and a chapel. A bronze socketed axe with two loops was found in the vicinity of the town of A Lanzada and is now housed in the National Archaeological Museum. Three more axes were uncovered in another part of the site, two of which belonged to the Marquis of Riestra and one that he gifted to an English s ...
Founded: 800-200 BCE |
Location:
A Lanzada, Spain
Antequera Dolmens Site
The Antequera Dolmens Site is a cultural heritage ensemble comprising three prehistorical monuments: the Dolmen of Menga, Dolmen of Viera and Tholos of El Romeral. It was declared a World Heritage Site in 2016 together with two natural mountain features (the Peña de los Enamorados and El Torcal). Built during the Neolithic and the Bronze Age out of large stone blocks that form chambers and spaces with lintelled roofs ...
Founded: 3000 BCE |
Location:
Antequera, Spain
Cales Coves Necropolis
Cales Coves is an emblematic and spectacular prehistoric necropolis, both for its setting and for the large number of tombs in it. They take the form of a set of cavities excavated from the rock walls of the ravines and coastal cliff faces (about 90 altogether), used by local communities to bury their dead. Several types of cave have been documented. The necropolis was used for about 1000 years, from the 11th century BCE ...
Founded: 11th century BCE |
Location:
Illes Balears, Spain