El Abra

Rock shelters at 2,570 m altitude: El Abra is one of the oldest traces of human settlement in South America — over 12,000 years ago.

El Abra is one of the most significant archaeological sites in South America. The rock shelters sit at 2,570 metres elevation east of Zipaquirá in Colombia and were inhabited by early human groups at the close of the Pleistocene — an estimated 12,000 to 13,000 years ago. Excavations beginning in the 1960s uncovered stone tools and animal bones pointing to hunting communities who used the Andean highlands as their home. El Abra ranks among the earliest evidence of human settlement in northern South America. Today the site is accessible for research visits and offers a unique window into the lives of the first people on the continent.