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Cellpic Sunday – The Caves of Nerja

Cavern at Nerja Caves.

Nerja, Andalusia, Spain.

We were warned. The vast and complex caves came with the admonition that the depth of the caverns might be a challenge for people susceptible to a steep climb after the tour. While there are many chambers and galleries, exploring the entire cave system would be monumental. The guided tours, however, are well-supervised and narrated. We were advised that there would be a turn-around after seeing a few of the more shallow caverns, and after only a few photos, we decided to forego the deeper parts of the caverns. It sucks to get old. >grin<

Statue depicting the discovery of the caves in 1959.

On January 12, 1959, five local boys were exploring a small cavity known as “Las Minas del Cementerio” when they stumbled upon a narrow opening used by bats. Their curiosity led them to venture inside, and what they found was spectacular.

As they ventured deeper into the cave, they discovered a vast, cavernous space filled with intricate stalactites, stalagmites, and ancient rock paintings. The boys were so amazed by their discovery that they immediately reported it to local authorities. The Nerja Caves, officially known as the Cueva de Nerja, quickly gained international recognition for their beauty and historical significance. The caves are estimated to be around 800,000 years old, and archaeological evidence suggests that they were inhabited by humans as early as 25,000 years ago. Wikipedia has an entry here for a more complete history and description of the caves.

About the photos: Given our potential for strenuous exercise, I wisely carried only my cell phone into the caverns. In addition to the statue of the five boys at the entrance, I captured a few of the upper caverns and selected my best cavern image to prep and share.

In Lightroom Classic, I increased the dynamic range while bringing up the shadows and reducing the highlights from the cave’s lighting arrangement. I then shipped the file off to Luminar Neo for a dose of Enhanced AI. I posted the two photos here in my Flickr album in 2K HD.

I encourage fellow bloggers to create their own Cellpic Sunday posts. I never have a specific topic for this feature, and the only rules are that the photo must be captured with a cell phone, iPad, or another mobile device… If you have an image from a drone or even a dashcam, that’s also acceptable. The second rule is to link your challenge response to this post or leave a comment here with a link to your post in the comment. Oh, also, you don’t have to post it on a Sunday.

John Steiner

43 comments

  10. Yes, it does suck to be getting old! It’s hard to accept that you can’t do certain things any longer. But, what you did get to see was fantastic and so was your featured image!

    Reply

  16. I was rushing to get this out before midnight, but my wifi kept going out. I’m embarrassed to say I took 500 photos of this wedding, so it was a large task to sift through them and edit them, but here they are…and some of the best are yet to come!! A Mexican wedding is a joyful affair!!!

    Reply

  22. Wow, John, what a story! You never cease to amaze and entertain with your adventures. I can’t imagine going down into the darkness when I was a child. They certainly were either brave or foolhardy. LOL The artwork tells it all. They were exhilarated. I tried clicking on the cave picture, but it didn’t open. Maybe I did something wrong.

    We have some caves here in the Sequoia National Park along with the big trees. I went when I was 33 and haven’t been back. Our grown kids wanted to visit when they come this week, but fortunately for us, they are closed until the 2025 season. One of the moms that went with us when I was 33 couldn’t make the grade. She had had cancer, and didn’t have the energy. She was the age our son is now. Hmmmm.

    Reply

  25. Wow! I went there when I was about 7, around 28 years ago! My maternal grandparents had a little villa nearby, and took us there, I remember the mountainous drive. How fond! Nice article.

    Reply

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