The Sacred Mountain is located in the heart of Trás-os-Montes, in the northeast of Portugal.

It is an island-hill (quartzite inselberg) that rises above the surrounding lowlands, offering a 360° panorama that reaches long distances, especially from three notable panoramic points: Pico de Santa Comba, Cruzeiro da Escarpa da Pala and Monte do Rei de Orelhão.

​Archaeological research in the Serra began following the Christianization of the Buraco da Pala shelter in 1986. The following year, in 1987, the excavation of the shelter began, under the responsibility of Maria de Jesus Sanches. This gave rise to a vast program of studies which, following the identification, in 1988, of the shelters with schematic paintings in Regato das Bouças 2 and 3, would be extended to the entire Serra in subsequent decades. In the following years, other painted shelters were identified.

Explorations and new records culminated in the first classification as a Site of Public Interest, in 1992 (Regato das Bouças), and in the proposal to expand the areas of the Serra to be safeguarded, presented in 2014.