Page 41 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Italian Riviera

THE HIST OR Y OF THE IT ALIAN RIVIER A  39

Arene Candide
The “white sands” cave (a sand
Savona dune once covered it) is closed
to the public. Finds from it are
exhibited in the archaeological
museum at Pegli, near Genoa.

Finale Where to See Prehistoric Liguria
Ligure

Albenga

Grotte di Toirano
In the Grotta della Bàsura are The interior of the Balzi Rossi museum
hand-, knee- and footprints of
Cro-magnon men, women Some of Liguria’s most significant prehistoric sites
and children. are also fascinating places to visit, in particular
the site of the Balzi Rossi, with its museum (see
p173), and the Grotte di Toirano (see pp150–51),
with their superb formations of stalactites and
stalagmites. Hikes offering breathtaking
scenery can also be taken along the Alpine
paths of the Vallée des Merveilles and Monte
The Caves of Liguria Bego, which lie just across the border in France.
The women of Liguria’s most ancient ancestor
died in the Grotta del Principe around 240,000
years ago. The great cave complex of Balzi Rossi,
however, continued to be used by Neanderthal
man even after that. Groups of hunter-gatherers
lived in many other Ligurian caves, too: at Arma
di Taggia near San Remo, and in the Grotta delle
Fate at Toirano near Finale Ligure. With the
passing of millennia, our closest ancestor (Homo
sapiens) settled in Liguria, where traces of his
presence have been found at Balzi Rossi, at
Toirano and in the grotto of Arene Candide in
the Savona province, where archaeologists
found 20 graves, including the famous tomb Hikers in the Vallée des Merveilles
of the Giovane Principe (Young Prince).

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