Mammoths were the first to discover Piešťany's thermal springs

Mammoth bones have recently been found near the spa town.

Prehistoric animals such as mammoths come to life in films thanks to digital technologies, but few artists have portrayed them as artistically as Zdeněk Burian. (Source: MONIKA TOMÁŠKOVÁ / MAFRA / Profimedia)

Long before the spa facilities, the Colonnade Bridge and the hotels were built, local people came to bathe in the health giving thermal springs that arise in what is now Piešťany.

But thousands of years earlier, other visitors used to warm themselves in the sun here. They had hair, horns and tusks and weighed several tons. Prehistoric mammoths, furry rhinos, giant stags, reindeer and other Palaeolithic creatures searched for these springs in ages past, when they migrated in herds through the valley of the Váh River.

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Two-legged hunters with spears in their hands came with them. All they had to do was wait and watch for prey to pass right under their noses.

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