Petralona Cave

Located about 78 km northwest of Neos Marmaras, Petralona cave - where the skull was found the oldest specimen of Homo sapiens from Europe, Archanthropus petraloniensis europaeus, is one of the most visited sights of Halkidiki.

Cave developed in the western slope of the mountain limestone Katsiki at 300 m elevation, was discovered five decades ago by an inhabitant of Petralona, gaining international recognition with the bringing to light of Archanthropus in 1960 Determinations the stratigraphy of the cave, where Archanthropus europaeus petraloniensis was identified, the study of Palaeolithic tools and diagnosis-specific paleofaunei present in all the 34 strata, it assigns absolute age of 700,000 years.

Skull, in perfect preservation, lacking only the lower jaw belongs to a man who died at the age of 32 years old pretty advanced standards of the time. In the cave were found trace fossils, belonging to the oldest man-lit fire, dating back 1 million years, which shows that prehistoric hominids already lived in the cave at the time. The cave is artificial enters a tunnel length of 100 m, dug into the mountainside erosion deposits, which covered the former natural input. Specially designed bridges, cross lit rooms in which life-size dioramas, presents the prehistoric inhabitants of the cave warming himself in front of fires.

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