Callao Cave (IPA: [ˈkalaʊ]) is one of 300 limestone caves located in the Barangays of Magdalo and Quibal in the municipality of Peñablanca, about 24 km (15 mi) northeast of Tuguegarao City, the capital of Cagayan province within the Peñablanca Protected Landscape and Seascape in the western foothills of the Northern Sierra Madre Mountains on Luzon island in the Philippines.

First excavated in 1980 by Maharlika Cuevas, the seven-chamber show cave is the best known natural tourist attraction of the Cagayan province and in February 2020 has officially been recognized as an important cultural property of the Philippines.

[6][7] Callao Cave was visited by American Governor-General Theodore Roosevelt Jr. in 1932 who, during his term, created the National Park system of the country with the passing of Act No.

[9] With the passing of the NIPAS Act of 1992 that revamped the protected areas of the country, the Callao National Park was reclassified but enlarged by Proclamation no.

In 2003 upon the recommendation of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), the protected area was further enlarged to include certain parcels of land in the public domain.

However, the next human habitation strata, that contains cultural depositions (charcoal, hearths and chert flake tools) and dates to ca.

This describes caves with areas that have hazardous conditions and contain sensitive geological, archaeological, cultural, historical, and biological values or high quality ecosystems.

[17] Homo luzonensis refers to human fossils first discovered inside Callao Cave in 2007 by a team made up of Filipino, French and Australian archeologists led by Armand Salvador Mijares.

Although tentatively considered by the scientific community as remains of Homo sapiens, the find, that consisted of a single 61 mm (2.4 in) metatarsal (foot bone) was dubbed as Callao Man.

In 2010, more fossils were unearthed and after Armand Salvador Mijares and his team discovered further material in 2015 (seven teeth and six small bones) a thorough anthropological and genetic study was undertaken.

On April 10, 2019, the team of paleoanthropologists Florent Détroit and Armand Salvador Mijares published the conclusions in the journal Nature, announcing the taxon of this newly identified human species to be Homo luzonensis, which definitely lived on Luzon island between 50,000 and 67,000 years ago.

Researchers have also noted, that the indigenous Aeta people, who live in the mountains of Luzon Island, might be descendants of Callao Man.