page_title: Meninges
section_title: Dura mater
hierarchical_section_title: Meninges / Layers of the meninges / Dura mater
caption_attribution_description: English: Anatomical dissections
context_page_description: The meninges are the membranes that surround and protect the brain and the spinal cord. In mammals, the meninges have three layers: the dura mater, the arachnoid mater, and the pia mater.
  In the space between the arachnoid mater and the pia mater, there is cerebrospinal fluid. CSF is a special fluid which bathes the brain and spinal cord. The meninges and the CSF work together to cushion and protect the central nervous system.
context_section_description: The dura mater (or "dura") is the layer of the meninges that is farthest from the brain and the spinal cord.  It is a thick, protective layer.  ("Dura mater" means "tough mother" in Latin.)  The dura protects the brain from being scraped and hurt by the skull, which is very rough.
  The dura mater has the largest blood vessels of all three layers of the meninges.  The veins in the dura carry blood from the brain to the heart after the brain has used up the oxygen in the blood.  The arteries in the dura carry oxygen-rich blood from the heart.  These arteries split into the capillaries in the pia mater.
  The dura also folds into the brain in four different places to separate parts of the brain, including the two cerebral hemispheres.
caption: On autopsy, the protective dura mater has been peeled back
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