Las Labradas, Petroglyphic site on the Pacific coast in San Ignacio Municipality, Mexico

Las Labradas is a petroglyph site on a beach at Barras de Piaxtla, at the mouth of the Piaxtla River in San Ignacio, Sinaloa. Most of the carvings were made on a volcanic rock cliff called La Ventana. The glyphs include stylized plants, flowers, fish, humans and zoomorphic figures.

These rock carvings were made between the 9th and 10th centuries by early inhabitants of the region. The site shows the artistic skills and ideas of a society that lived on this coast long before European contact.

The glyphs are mostly carved on a volcanic rock cliff called La Ventana, at the mouth of the Piaxtla River near the port of Barras de Piaxtla. Their motifs are strangely stylized forms of plants, flowers, fish, humans and zoomorphic figures. Because of the plastic quality of the carvings, the site is regarded as one of the most important rock-art places in the Americas.

The best way to see the fine details carved into the dark volcanic rocks is to view them from different angles and use light and shadow to your advantage. A phone camera or device with zoom can help capture the subtler patterns that are otherwise hard to spot.

Most of the petroglyphs were carved on a volcanic rock cliff called La Ventana, at the mouth of the Piaxtla River near the port of Barras de Piaxtla. Researchers have determined that some of the carvings could date back thousands of years, far older than the 9th- and 10th-century examples.