The Indalo, a little stick figure holding an arc over its head, is now the symbol of the whole province of Almería, painted on houses, cars and souvenirs, and it comes from a rock shelter here in the hills around Vélez-Blanco. The Cueva de los Letreros, a few kilometres from this point, holds the original among other paintings of the Levantine and schematic styles, and the shelters of the Sierra de María are part of the World Heritage Site of Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula, inscribed in 1998. Santonje, as the area is called, is one of a cluster of sites in these mountains.
The paintings are in red ochre, small and often faded, showing humans, animals, hunting scenes and abstract signs. They were made by people living in the area thousands of years ago, from the Mesolithic to the Bronze Age. Seeing them requires effort: most shelters are reached on foot and some are fenced or open only on guided visits.
Vélez-Blanco itself is dominated by a Renaissance castle on a rock, built in the early sixteenth century by the Fajardo family. Its marble courtyard, a masterpiece of Italian Renaissance carving, was sold in the early twentieth century and now stands in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, leaving the castle with an empty space where its heart used to be. The village below has whitewashed houses and narrow streets.
The landscape is the high, dry country of north-eastern Almería, with the Sierra de María rising above plains of almond trees and cereal fields. The Sierra de María-Los Vélez Natural Park has pine forests, limestone peaks and wildlife, including ibex and birds of prey. Summers are hot, winters cold and sometimes snowy at altitude.
Traffic is almost absent once you leave the main road. The roads between Vélez-Blanco, María and Vélez-Rubio are scenic, and further afield, the routes into Granada and Murcia provinces offer more mountains. Vélez-Rubio, twenty-three kilometres away, is the place for fuel. Try migas, fried breadcrumbs with garlic and sausage, and the hearty stews of the region.