Peña Escrita (Canales de Molina): rock engravings with human figures

Peña Escrita is a rock art site in Canales de Molina on the bed of the Linares stream, featuring human figures and markings incised into sandstone. It comprises a small rock shelter with engraved collapsed blocks and an upper 30-metre tilted stone slab forming the ground above the stream. Popularly called Moorish, their date is uncertain.

This place across time

Which eras you can read here

A single place can preserve traces from different eras. These layers connect what you see with the stories in the atlas.

First traces · Upper Palaeolithic – Bronze Age

Municipality: Canales de Molina
Province: Guadalajara
Altitude: 1,191 m

Rock engravings
Human figures
30 m slab
Uncertain dating

Two distinct panels

The site comprises two distinct components: first, a small rock shelter at the level of the stream containing a large fallen sandstone block covered in incised engravings. Second, the upper roof surface of this shelter: a flat, tilted rock slab extending roughly 30 metres that forms the natural ground surface some seven metres above the streambed, covered with numerous large incised human figures.

An archaeological enigma

Local villagers have long known the carvings and traditionally attributed them to the “Moors”, but their artistic features make precise chronological dating difficult. The site is reached on foot from Canales de Molina along a farm track, roughly 3 km. Never touch, scratch, or highlight the engravings.