El Maipes necropolis, Agaete
| El Maipes necropolis, Agaete | |
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Native name Spanish: Necrópolis del Maipés de Agaete or Necrópolis de Maipés de Arriba |
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| Type | tumuli |
| Etymology | Mal país |
| Location | Agaete, Grand Canary, Canary Islands, Macaronesia, off the west coast of Africa |
| Nearest city | Agaete |
| Coordinates | 28°05′51.6840″N 15°41′44.1096″W / 28.097690000°N 15.695586000°WCoordinates: 28°05′51.6840″N 15°41′44.1096″W / 28.097690000°N 15.695586000°W |
| Website | www.maipesdeagaete.com |
| Criteria | Artistic-Historic Heritage |
| Designated | 1973 |
| Archaeological site | 1992 |
 Location of El Maipes necropolis on Grand Canary island
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The El Maipes necropolis (in Spanish necropolis del Maipés) is an ancient burial site near Agaete on the Spanish island of Grand Canary, province of Las Palmas in the Canary Islands of the west coast of Africa.
Second-largest necropolis of the Canaries after that of Arteara, the site is listed Spanish Heritage as a Property of cultural interest in the category "archaeological zone". Its particular geology, and subsequently its vegetation are also of notable interest.
The little town of Agaete is on the north-west coast of Grand Canary island, at the end of the GC-2 road that links Agaete to Las Palmas, the archipelago’s co-capital 32 km to the east of Agaete. The Maipes necropolis is found in the south-east of Agaete, 200 ft west of the football ground.
It is about 10 mns' walk away from the centre of Agaete. If driving, follow the signs to El Valle and the archaeological park.
The name Maipés comes from the word malpais or mal pais, which means "bad land". This is due to the flow of volcanic lava that covered the bottom of the Maipés ravine about 3,000 years ago.
The Maipes necropolis is one of the most spectacular burial sites on the island. It covers more than one square km with around 600 or 700 or more small tumuli, dating from the 8th to 10th centuries. Some of the tumuli are more than 1,300 years old, which gives them the same range of age as those in the Arteara necropolis.
The tumuli sit on volcanic ground, more precisely on an old lava flow that came out of the nearby volcanoes Jabelobo, Berrazales and Fagajesto.
The eruption brought forth a 11 km-wide flow of lava that followed the valley and reached the sea at Puerto de las Nieves. Later, the cemetery was established on a stretch of lava covering 25 ha (some 62 acres). After the Spanish conquest of the islands, some of that lava was covered with soil to allow for some farming.
The tumuli are also built of volcanic rocks. Most of them are built on elliptic or round plans with a truncated cone outline. Some of them reach 8 m diameter and 3 m in height. Inside each tumulus is a pit with its sides marked by stone slabs, in which the deceased bodies were placed. Some coffins have also been found inside some tumuli.
The size and building refinement vary noticeably among the tumuli, indicating the social ranks of their occupiers. The particularity of some of these small tumuli are the stones that crown them, which are of different colours and texture than the surrounding volcanic material. The most common ones are a simple ring of volcanic stones, the more sophisticated ones are topped with turret-type stonework and were probably used to bury nobility.
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