Serras de Aire e Candeeiros

The Serras de Aire e Candeeiros Natural Park was created in 1979 in central Portugal, north of Lisbon, and protects some 390 km² of the limestone massif of Estremadura.

It is the largest karst complex in Portugal. The Jurassic limestone has been dissolved by water into a relief of dolines, limestone pavements, dry valleys and fields of bare rock, with hardly any surface watercourses because all the water sinks in. Beneath the surface there is a highly developed cave system, with show caves such as Mira de Aire, Alvados, Santo António and Moeda, and with important bat colonies.

Its most notable discovery is palaeontological: in the former Galinha quarry, at Pedreira do Galinha, trackways of Middle Jurassic sauropod dinosaurs were found in the early 1990s, with prints running continuously for more than a hundred and forty metres, among the longest and best preserved in the world. The site is protected as a Natural Monument. The farmed landscape of the massif, with its dry stone walls, its pastures and its traditional livestock, forms part of the protected value.