Altamira (Spanish for 'high view') is a cave in Spain famous for its Upper Paleolithiccave paintings featuring drawings and polychrome rock paintings of wild mammals and human hands.

It is located near the town of Santillana del Mar in Cantabria, Spain, 30 km west of the city of Santander. The cave with its paintings has been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

The cave is 296 meters long, and consists of a series of twisting passages and chambers. The main passage varies from two to six meters high.

The cave was formed through collapses following early karstic phenomena in the calcerous rock of Mount Vispieres.

It was painted about 14,000 years ago. Not only is it beautiful, it seems to be charging.

It is one of nearly a hundred figures on that ceiling, which someone has called “the Sistine Chapel of prehistory”.

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