Atapuerca () is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

and town located in the

province of Burgos The province of Burgos is a Provinces of Spain, province of northern Spain, in the northeastern part of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castile-Leon, Castile and León. It is bordered by the provinces of Palencia (p ...

Castile and León Castile and León is an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in northwestern Spain. Castile and León is the largest autonomous community in Spain by area, covering 94,222 km2. It is, however, sparsely populated, with a pop ...

, Spain. It encompasses the Archaeological Site of Atapuerca and is famous for its prehistoric archaeological sites. The municipality is made of two villages: Atapuerca (seat or capital) and Olmos de Atapuerca. The village is the home of an Experimental Archaeology Centre (CAREX). The village also plays host to an annual

cross country running Cross country running is a sport in which teams and individuals run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain such as dirt or grass. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and soil, earth, pass through woodlands and ope ...

event—the

Cross de Atapuerca The Cross Internacional de Atapuerca is an annual cross country running competition that takes place in Atapuerca (town), Atapuerca, Spain. Established in 2004, it takes place in early November and is among the first major competitions of the cro ...

—which attracts over 2000 runners each year. Atapuerca is on the

French Way The French Way (, , ) follows the GR 65 and is the most popular of the routes of the Way of St. James (), the ancient pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, Spain. It runs from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port on the French side of th ...

() of the

Camino de Santiago The Camino de Santiago (, ; ), or the Way of St. James in English, is a network of pilgrims' ways or pilgrimages leading to the shrine of the apostle James in the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in northwestern Spain, where tra ...

. For a while the Spanish Army had an armoured tank training facility nearby.

History

The massif just outside of town was the site of the

Battle of Atapuerca The Battle of Atapuerca was fought on 1 September 1054 at the site of Piedrahita ("standing stone") in the valley of Atapuerca between two brothers, King García Sánchez III of Navarre and King Ferdinand I of Castile. The Castilians won and ...

in 1054. In 1899, construction of a railway unveiled several significant archaeological sites at Atapuerca. The railway proved uneconomic and closed in the twentieth century. On November 30, 2000, Atapuerca was declared a

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

by UNESCO. It is unique in Europe in allowing archaeologists to follow the evolution of the first human beings to inhabit the European continent.

Economy

According to the 2005

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

( INE), the municipality had a population of 195 inhabitants. Apart from the typical

dryland farming Drylands are defined by a scarcity of water. Drylands are zones where precipitation is balanced by evaporation from surfaces and by transpiration by plants (evapotranspiration). The United Nations Environment Program defines drylands as tropical ...

of the region, the municipality now has the economic resources generated because of the presence of the archaeological site and its associated services. 15% of the active population have a job related to tourism; since the 1990s this "tertiarization" of their economy has reversed depopulation, rejuvenating the population and placing the average age in 42 years. Directly related, the creation of employment that has been derived from this type of actions, has had a positive social impact in society.

References

External links

*
Atapuerca visit
.

Museum of Human Evolution The Museum of Human Evolution (Spanish: ''Museo de la Evolución Humana - MEH'') is situated on the south bank of the river Arlanzón, in the Spanish city of Burgos. It is located roughly 16 kilometers west of the Sierra de Atapuerca, the loca ...

Centro de initiativas turisticas
Municipalities in the Province of Burgos {{Burgos-geo-stub