GEOCACHING POINT
GC1W864-Cobragança [Mação]
(nearby)
GC1W5X6-Conheira da Lagoa [Mação]
All over the country there are enigmatic places, and the so-called 'Fragas do Diabo' (Devil's Frags) (near Caratão) is one such place. The ancients called this place 'Fragas do Diabo' (Devil's Frags) because there are strange engravings that didn't understand the meaning... things of the devil!
In this place also called Cobragança there are very old engravings, at about 340 meters of altitude, located southwest of the village. These prints are from the Final Bronze Age (1000 to 500 B.C.) that I saw for the first time in 1998. At that time everything was different, they were embedded in the middle of big pines, I remember as if it was today in the sky hanging the suspense... there were ferns and a lot of karuma and nature was breathing.
On the rocks I saw those strange shapes, which, with all that natural set seemed perfect to me... decorated with concentric circles, oval, rectangular shapes, a drawing that perhaps depicts a flower and other traces that appear to men and perhaps animals.
All of them made by our ancestors through the picotagem method, achieved when one takes successive strokes on a percutor decorating in this case the rock. These figures are divided into two rocky surfaces of a reddish colour, today the colour is somewhat altered due to the reactions caused by fire.
The prints were identified in the 40's of the last century, by Dr. João Calado Rodrigues, to whom we can hold as the father of the Mação Museum.
In 2003 the fire destroyed the existing landscape, and the figures suffered the first great erosion, the high temperatures to which the rocks were subjected filled in irreversible losses. Already in 2017 they were subjected to another great ordeal, another fire of great dimensions.
My friend Gonçalo took pictures after the fire, this picture below taken on July 29, 2017.
As we can see how the prints were subject to danger, as the pine forest grew dense around them, and once again they went through high temperatures and degradation is visible. At the time Gonçalo cleaned the material on top of the rocks and stayed there.
Source: RESPIRA NATURE GAdy Rui Santos https://respiranatureza.com/2019/01/03/4094/