Monte Alegre State Park

The hills behind Monte Alegre carry painted shelters - Pedra Pintada, Pedra do Mirante and others - with figures in red and yellow of human forms, animals, handprints and concentric geometric designs, some of them positioned to catch the sun at particular times of year. Their importance is chronological. Excavation at Caverna da Pedra Pintada led by Anna Roosevelt in the 1990s produced dates around eleven thousand years old, which challenged the model that the Amazon was settled late and only by peoples moving down from elsewhere, and argued instead for early, independent occupation of the tropical forest. The park protects the hills, the shelters and a stretch of cerrado and forest above the floodplain. Access is guided and controlled.

What you actually see

• Painted shelters - red and yellow figures, handprints and geometric designs.
• Caverna da Pedra Pintada - the site dated to around eleven thousand years ago.
• Panels aligned to the sun - some designs positioned for particular dates.
• Hills above the floodplain - cerrado and forest over the lower Amazon.

When to go

July to December, the drier half. Two days.

Honest expectations

Guides are compulsory and arranged in Monte Alegre, not at the sites. Access is 4x4 on rough tracks with walking at the end, in heavy heat. Getting to Monte Alegre at all means a boat or a small plane. Facilities are minimal.

Nearby

Santarem is upriver; Alenquer is west along the same bank.