The Estrella Sites program has organized guided tours of the site today, Thursday, and also on Friday and Saturday.
A total of 75 people will enjoy and understand the heritage context of the light phenomenon of the sunrise on the spring equinox from the Arteara Necropolis in San Bartolomé de Tirajana today, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, thanks to the "The Light of the King" event of the Estrella Yacimientos program organized by the Historical and Cultural Heritage Service of the Gran Canaria Island Council, attached to the Ministry of the Presidency coordinated by Teodoro Sosa. All places are fully booked.
From the Arteara Necropolis, surrounded by the human remains of the aboriginal society that populated this immense ravine, the arrival of spring once again summoned the citizens to share in the ancestral observation of its equinox. In front of us are the southern edges of Amurga, from where the marker casts a beam of light that, the locals say, points to the King's tomb.
At that moment, the first rays of the day bathe the great burial mound and herald the beginning of the new season, creating a special relationship with this impressive landscape and preparing for an emotional and intellectual connection with the heritage site. In addition to celestial observation, the activity reveals the keys to the cultural ecology that enables the conservation of these ecosystems.
Arteara is presented as an example of this alliance between community and environment, dominated by a palm grove in whose shade crops grew. It's an example of ecological and sustainable coexistence, a gentle way of loving and understanding the island. The activity is free and includes bus transfers from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
The Arteara Necropolis occupies an area two kilometers long and one kilometer wide. It is located next to the small village of Arteara, in a setting where the green of the palm grove contrasts with the hardness of the rock, giving it a unique beauty, according to the Cabildo's website patrimoniohistorico.grancanaria.com.
This prehistoric burial site, declared a Site of Cultural Interest (BIC), is made up of more than a thousand tumular structures. A very high percentage of the structures are simple tumuli, that is, a burial space protected by a pile of stones.
However, they are not completely homogeneous; their adaptation to the terrain creates certain differences between them (free-standing mounds, those attached to rocky outcrops, etc.), and they take on truncated or ovoid shapes, among others. The deposition of a single corpse in each of these structures seems to be the most common occurrence, although there are also examples where more than one individual is found.
A dry stone wall, some sections of which are still preserved, surrounds the entire necropolis. The existence of this defining element reaffirms the symbolic character that Arteara, like the rest of the burial sites, must have held for the prehistoric inhabitants of Gran Canaria, according to the Cabildo's website patrimoniohistorico.grancanaria.com.
