Inwood Hill Park Caves

Inwood Hill Park Caves are the last natural caves in Manhattan, shallow rock shelters in the park's ancient forest that were used by the Lenape people for thousands of years before European contact.

Archaeological excavations in the caves have uncovered tools, pottery, shells, and other artifacts documenting continuous Native American habitation dating back thousands of years. The caves represent the longest record of human occupation on Manhattan.

Inwood Hill Park contains the last remaining natural forest on Manhattan Island, with tulip trees, oaks, and other native species growing on slopes that have never been cleared. The forest surrounding the caves looks much as it did when the Lenape lived here.

The park's salt marsh along the Harlem River is one of the last remaining natural shorelines in Manhattan, providing habitat for wading birds and other wildlife in a landscape that predates European settlement.

Inwood Hill Park Caves connect visitors to the deepest layer of Manhattan's human history, shelters used by the island's first inhabitants in a forest that is the last surviving fragment of the pre-colonial landscape.