The Parque nacional Cueva de las Maravillas (English: ''Cave of wonders National Park'') is a

national park A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...

located approximately 15

kilometres The kilometre ( SI symbol: km; or ), spelt kilometer in American English, is a unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), equal to one thousand metres (kilo- being the SI prefix for ). It is now the measurement unit used for ...

(9 miles ) east from

San Pedro de Macorís San Pedro de Macorís is a city and Municipalities of the Dominican Republic, municipality (''municipio'') in the Dominican Republic and the capital of the San Pedro de Macorís Province, San Pedro de Macorís province in the east region of the ...

and 10

(7 miles) west from La Romana, in the south-eastern part of the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares wit ...

on the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

island of

Hispaniola Hispaniola (, also ; es, La Española; Latin and french: Hispaniola; ht, Ispayola; tnq, Ayiti or Quisqueya) is an island in the Caribbean that is part of the Greater Antilles. Hispaniola is the most populous island in the West Indies, and th ...

. Named after the Cave of Wonders, it was previously known as the Cueva Jaguar until 1949, and it is well known for its ancient paintings by the

Taíno The Taíno were a historic Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, indigenous people of the Caribbean whose culture has been continued today by Taíno descendant communities and Taíno revivalist communities. At the time of European contact in the ...

Indians. The park is located on the road between the town of

and La Romana, near the

Soco River The Soco River () is a river of the Dominican Republic. See also *List of rivers of the Dominican Republic This is a list of rivers in the Dominican Republic, arranged in clockwise order around the island starting in the northwest corner, with r ...

and Cumayasa. It is 800 meters long and is 25 meters underground, and has an area of 4.5 square kilometers. The caves were declared a national park on July 22, 1997 Inside the cave you can see about 500 paintings and engravings on the walls, painted in black and red and made by the Taínos, the ancient inhabitants of the island. According to reports, it has about 10 petroglyphs (rock engravings), and 472 pictographs (paintings on the walls). Of these 472, 144 pictographs were classified as cryptic or abstract and whimsical groupings at 69 points. In addition you can see 135 pictographs with a human face, 18 animal, 41 human and animal form, 18 and 38 geometric and human. The attractions of the caves of wonder are pictographic, The Water Mirror Gallery, which consists of an artificial lake that reflects like a mirror the top of the cave and The Great Panel, in the latter you can see a cave painting created by the Taínos, which represents a funeral ritual, among others. In the variety of flora include 48 natural species arraijanes, guáyiga, yellow caya, lignum vitae, pegapalo, jasmine, cat's claw, carboy, stick hen, black Cuba, yaya brown, bighorn coffee, cane juice, stick donkey, Pringamosa and bitter stick, among others. The cave opens in limestone reef belongs to the geomorphological unit known as South East Coastal Plain. In 1926 it was called Cueva Jaguar, and in 1949 Professor Francisco Richiez Acevedo assigned the name of Cave of wonders for the beauty revealing inside and everything visitors could imagine by looking at the figures created by the stalactites and stalagmites, as well as its wide variety of pictographs.

References

{{authority control National parks of the Dominican Republic Tourist attractions in La Romana Province Geography of La Romana Province Caves of the Dominican Republic