Risco Caído


Risco Caído is a land-form and archaeological site on the island of Gran Canaria, Spain. The site contains prehistoric cave dwellings, temples, and granaries attributed to the pre-hispanic culture of the Canary Islands. It is also considered to have been used as an astronomical observatory by Aboriginal people. In July 2019, Risco Caído was named as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is the first World Heritage Site of the island of Gran Canaria and the province of Las Palmas and the fifth of the Canary Islands.

Critics

The inclusion of Risco Caído in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites has been criticized by certain sectors, such as the mathematician José Barrios who considers the lack of scientific support to really consider it an aboriginal astronomical observatory or the institutional overprotection of this enclave in front of others in Gran Canaria, such as the archaeological site of Four Doors. Also the geographer Eustaquio Villalba, has called into question the existence of an astronomical observatory in Risco Caído. Both criticizing also that a single article, written by the discoverer of the site, Julio Cuenca, has sufficed for such an international declaration.
According to Barrios: "there is no scientific study that supports the archaeological astronomical hypothesis". It alludes that there are no astronomical markers that would ratify this theory and that there is not a single published technical report that supports any of these statements.