Gran Canaria – Risco Caido and the Sacred Mountains of Gran Canaria homeland of the native Amazigh inhabitants, commonly known as ‘Guanches’, has been added to the prestigious United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Heritage List.
The decision was announced during the 43rd session of the World Heritage Committee in Baku, Republic of Azerbaijan and gives the site protected status under international treaties.Â
Located in a vast mountainous area in the centre of Gran Canaria in Spain, in Risco CaÃdo comprises cliffs, ravines and volcanic formations in a landscape of rich biodiversity.
The landscape includes a large number of troglodyte settlements — habitats, granaries and cisterns — whose age is proof of the presence of a pre-Hispanic culture on the island, which has evolved in isolation, from the arrival of North African Amazigh (Berbers), around the beginning of our era, until the first Spanish settlers in the 15th century. [ads2]
