ARCHAEOLOGICAL RUINS

RUPESTRIAN ART
The Salta territory has many examples of Prehistoric Art expressed through rock carvings and cave paintings:

The Rock Carvings have been made using the technique of stippling dots and scraping. There are scenes depicting hunting, animals, anthropomorphic or geometric figures. There are also the strange "standing stones", some of them engraved (like the ones in the Tafí del Valle, in the Menhir Park) in high zones, usually between the "Abras" (high passes through the mountains dividing two zones). Many places with these rock carvings can be found near Santa Rosa del Tastil, San Bernardo de las Zorras, Cafayate and Alto Valle Calchaquí.

Rupestrian Paintings, accomplished by using both mineral or organic materials, are generally to be found on sandstone overhangs. The predominating colours are ochre, white, red and black. They represent men, shields, llamas and rhea ostriches. The paintings can be seen in:

• Las Juntas, 140 kms from Salta, by the Nacional Route No 68 to La Viña, entering then the locality of Guachipas and La Cuesta del Cebilar and La Cuesta del Lajar.
• Ablomé, 70 kms by the Nacional Route No 68 to Coronel Moldes, entering the Dique de Cabra Corral Dam, and from there on a catamaran is needed to reach the place.
• Valle Encantado or Enchanted valley (visit with the help of a guide), Brealitos, La Poma.

DINOSAUR FOOTPRINTS
The last dinosaurs alive dwelled in the northern territories of the land that now is called Argentina. They left a message for us. Their footprints actually "speak" to scholars: in the year of 1990, the renown international expert on dinosaur footprints, Doctor Ricardo Alonso, participated in a photographic expedition with the National Geographic Society to register images of the footprints of those prehistoric animals that are found in the Valle del Tronco Valley, Salta.

Alonso asserts that 65 million years ago, at the end of the Mesozoic era, during the Cretaceous Period, before the rising of the Andes, in the place that is actually occupied by the Cuesta del Obispo, some 160 kms from Salta, a wonderful sub tropical forest existed by the shores of the sea.

The dinosaurs came from the continental lands of the West, in the direction of what today is the Puna. The ones that left their footprints in the beach sands were the last dinosaurs ever to roam Earth. Suddenly, they became the victims of the great extinction that changed the world forever.

Those prints were covered and filled with limestone sand carried there by a hurricane -like storm. With time, they turned into fossils. After a period of some 50 or 60 million years, about the time when the Andes arose, the former beach was transformed into a wall that the wind eroded with time. Water and wind uncovered the footprints, and now they can be easily seen.

The young geologist describes the environment in which these dinosaurs lived. Everything presumes the presence of a mild, warm and damp weather, with clear water seas whose tides are perfectly registered up to this days on the sands. It was a wealthy and rich biotope, among beaches of white calcareous sands, very much alike the shores of the present day Bahamas.

These footprints were discovered by Mario Raskovsky, geologist of the Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica (The National Atomic Energy Committee), who took part in an expedition searching for uranium in the Valley of the Tonco. Currently, the valley is called "Quebrada de la Escalera" or Ladder Ravine, because ladders of steel rope and wooden steps had to be assembled to allow access for the miners. It is so abrupt and vertical that many of those attempting to climb it suffer aerophobia attacks, vertigo and other similar symptoms.

These footprints tell us that they were made by bipeds that didn't drag their tails but walked upright in a vertical posture. This fact confirms the theory that they were warm-blooded animals, well advanced into the evolutionary agenda.

Lately, the affluence of visitors has constantly shown a growing rate. Indeed, there are several tour agencies that organize tours to this locations, even though accessing to these places seldom is an easy task.