Petralona Cave

Nature has always been an unpredictable designer. This is more than apparent when entering Petralona Cave, formed around a million years ago. Nicknamed “the red-rock cave” because of the color that the bauxite deposits give to the stone, the cavern stretches across an area of 10,400m² and consists of a series of stoas, chambers, high ceilings and pools, full of stalactites and stalagmites. Its discovery in 1959 opened a window into prehistoric times. Nowadays, it is the most important of Greece’s 12,000 caves, thanks to its wealth of fossils (one of the richest collections in Europe) and to the discovery, around half a century ago, of the oldest human remains ever found in Greece. The Cave reopens its doors in Spring 2024, after remaining closed for five years, during which a series of interventions were completed so that the Cave is environmentally sustainable, with respect to both its attractions and visitors.