PROVINCE OF ALMERIA.

In Almería, Juan de Orea is responsible for the low reliefs of the facade of the Cathedral and for the choir stalls there too.

This man worked in the 16th century and was one of the master masons of the Alhambra. The worn wood of the stalls have low reliefs of the Apostles, Prophets and Saints of classic design and purist elements.

The museum in Almeria has two examples of the Good Shepherd from the 5th and 6th centuries: the paleochristian sculptures from Gádor, which are made of rather roughly shaped marble from late Roman times. They are a testimony of the beginnings of Christianity in Andalusia.

The Cuevas de los Letreros and Gabal caves (Vélez Blanco) are enormously interesting. The former was the first Andalusian cave to be studied, and it was initially thought that its representation was a system of archaic hieroglyphic writing, though this idea was later abandoned when other caves were seen to have an abundance of parallel bitriangular symbols, typical of diagrammatic Andalusian art. The Almeria area is known for the caves of Sierra Morena and Alto Guadalquivir, and for the shelters of the Penibética range.