Risco Caido merece ser patrimonio de la Unesco, EFE

Both the King of Spain, Felipe VI, and Queen Letizia are “convinced” that the site of Risco Caído, in Gran Canaria, deserves the recognition to which it aspires as UNESCO World Heritage, “for its extraordinary quality in historical and natural terms.”

In the speech given by Felipe VI this Monday, during the first day of his visit to the Canary Islands, the King stressed that the Royal House feels “involved” with the candidacy that Spain will present to Unesco so that this pre-Hispanic site is included in the list of World Heritage sites.

The caves of Risco Caído, located in Artenara, at the top of Gran Canaria, testify to the great mastery of astronomy and the calendars that came to develop the aboriginal populations of the Canary Islands, by building solar and lunar markers that allowed them to know precisely key moments for agriculture or for the rites of their societies, such as seasonal changes.

Felipe VI has known details of the archaeological site in the Casa de Colón, in the historic quarter of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, showing that the achievements by aboriginal societies had aroused his personal curiosity for astronomy, Heriatage technician Jose de Leon, who has explained him its value, has related.

A society that did not know the metals achieved to construct an artificial cave in Risco Caído where the first light of the day marks with precision the beginning of the summer in the shape of a ray that sneaks through a skylight during the days of the solstice and runs through its walls, and the moonlight does the same when winter arrives.

Mr. Felipe praised the value of the so-called “sacred mountains of Gran Canaria” in his first speech on this visit, which took place at the headquarters of the Canarian Ocean Platform, a public consortium with which Spain aspires to lead the research in marine engineering and renewable energy.

“A society linked to science, research, ideas, innovation and knowledge is a society capable of explaining and transforming the world,” he added.

Telde (Canary Islands), April 24, 2017

Grammar notes: differences between ‘por’ and ‘para’,  simple tenses of the indicative mood