Cuevas del Pomier receive official recognition as cultural heritage

Santo Domingo.- The Senate of the Dominican Republic approved in second reading a bill declaring the Cuevas de Borbón, also known as the Cuevas del Pomier, as the “Rock Art Capital of the Dominican Republic.” The initiative aims to strengthen national and international recognition of this important cultural and archaeological site located in the Borbón section of San Cristóbal province.

The proposal was introduced by Senator Gustavo Lara Salazar, who highlighted the reserve’s exceptional cultural value. The Cuevas del Pomier Anthropological Reserve is considered one of the most significant archaeological sites in the Caribbean, preserving evidence of ancient human settlements dating back more than a thousand years and offering key insights into the earliest cultural expressions in the Antilles.

The reserve comprises 55 caves spread across approximately four square kilometers, with depths reaching up to 1,000 meters underground. Inside, researchers have documented nearly 6,000 pictographs depicting animals and human figures, along with about 500 petroglyphs, created primarily by the Taíno and Igneri peoples before the arrival of Spanish colonizers in 1492, underscoring the site’s outstanding historical and scientific importance.