In southeastern Piauí, Serra da Capivara National Park brings together dramatic sandstone cliffs, dry valleys and archaeological shelters within Brazil’s Caatinga. UNESCO inscribed the property as a World Heritage site in 1991 for its exceptional concentration of prehistoric rock art and archaeological evidence. The attraction is not a single cave or overlook: it is a large protected landscape in which painted and engraved rock shelters sit among ravines, plateaus, native vegetation and habitats adapted to a semi-arid climate.
UNESCO reports more than 300 archaeological sites in the park, most with rock or wall paintings. It identifies surviving rock art at one site dating to 10,530 years before present. This is a defensible point of reference; wider claims about much earlier human settlement in the region remain debated and should not be presented as settled fact. FUMDHAM, the research foundation involved in the area’s scientific work and visitor interpretation, maintains a broader inventory of 1,354 registered archaeological sites, of which 204 are prepared for tourism. The figures count different things and should not be confused.