Module 136 — Cultural Intelligence
The Memory
in the Stone
Africa holds the oldest, densest, and most diverse rock art on Earth. Across 50,000 sites and 75,000 years, the continent's earliest artists painted and engraved what they saw: hippos in the Sahara, cattle where dunes now stand, elephants in the Namib. They were not making art. They were building a climate archive.
Oldest symbolic art in Africa — Blombos Cave engraved ochre
Oldest figurative rock art — Apollo 11 Cave, Namibia
Estimated rock art sites in southern Africa alone (ICOMOS)
Conservative estimate of individual images in southern Africa
Rock art World Heritage Sites — more than any other continent
Saharan art phases: Wild Fauna → Round Head → Pastoral → Horse → Camel
The Sites
From the Saharan plateaus to the Cape, rock art traces human presence across the continent. Hover to explore.
Satellite Imagery
The Forest of Stone
Tassili n'Ajjer — "plateau of chasms" in Tamahaq — rises 500 metres above the Saharan plain in southeast Algeria. Wind and water carved 72,000 km² of sandstone into arches, pillars, and sheltered corridors where more than 15,000 paintings and engravings survived for 12,000 years. UNESCO World Heritage since 1982.
Satellite imagery © Mapbox / © OpenStreetMap. Djanet (gold) and Sefar (red) marked.
Blombos Cave
South Africa · ~75,000 BCE
Engraved ochre with crosshatch motifs — the oldest known symbolic expression in Africa. Also the world's earliest drawing (73,000 BCE). Evidence of abstract thought and possibly language.
Oldest symbolic art in Africa
Apollo 11 Cave
Namibia · ~27,500 BCE
Seven quartzite slabs painted with charcoal and ochre — animal figures including a possible therianthrope. Discovered by W.E. Wendt in 1969. Named after the moon landing happening during the dig.
Oldest figurative rock art in Africa
Tassili n'Ajjer
Algeria · 12,000–2,000 BP · 15,000+ images
Sandstone plateau in the central Sahara with the densest rock art concentration in Africa. Records five periods — from giant wild fauna to camels. Documents the Green Sahara: hippos, crocodiles, elephants, and swimming humans in what is now the driest desert on Earth.
Densest concentration in Africa
Tadrart Acacus
Libya · 12,000 BP
Thousands of cave paintings and engravings across five art phases. Borders Tassili n'Ajjer, shares its cultural traditions. Documents transformation from savanna to desert over 10,000 years.
Five art periods over 10,000 years
Ennedi Massif
Chad · 7,000–2,000 BP
Sandstone plateau in northeastern Chad. Green oases still attract life. Rock art from the Pastoral and Horse periods. UNESCO mixed natural/cultural site since 2016.
Living landscape — oases still function
Cave of Swimmers
Egypt · ~10,000 BP
Discovered by László Almásy in 1933 in the Gilf Kebir plateau. Small human figures in swimming postures — proof this region once held permanent water. Featured in The English Patient.
Swimming figures in the Sahara
Dabous Giraffes
Niger · 6,000–8,000 BP · 828 images
Two life-size giraffe petroglyphs — the largest animal carvings on Earth. The larger measures 5.4 metres. Each has a mysterious line from its mouth to a small human figure. Where the Ténéré meets the Aïr Mountains.
Largest animal petroglyphs on Earth
Morocco Atlas Sites
Morocco · 5,000+ BP · 921+ images
300+ rock art sites across the High Atlas and Saharan south. Mainly engravings: antelope, cattle, elephants, rhinoceros, warriors, weapons. Oukaïmeden at 2,630m has 1,068 engravings alone.
300+ sites across Atlas and Sahara
Laas Geel
Somaliland · 5,500–4,500 BP
Polychrome paintings of cattle in ceremonial robes, herders, dogs, giraffes. Best-preserved rock paintings in Africa. Known locally for centuries as "the place of devils." Cannot receive UNESCO status because Somaliland is unrecognised.
Best-preserved — blocked from UNESCO by politics
Kondoa-Irangi
Tanzania · 1,500+ BP
Rock paintings on the Maasai Escarpment, western edge of the Great Rift Valley. Multiple styles from hunter-gatherers to agriculturalists. Still used for ritual purposes.
Still ritually active
Chongoni
Malawi · 2,500+ BP · 127 sites images
Richest rock art concentration in Central Africa. Unusual white schematic paintings by Chewa agriculturalists for initiation, rain-making, funeral rites. Symbols still culturally active.
Farmer rock art — symbols still living
Matobo Hills
Zimbabwe · 13,000+ BP
Granite inselbergs with profuse San rock paintings. Spirit-world art: therianthropes, trance rituals. Continuous occupation from Early Stone Age. Shrines still in active use.
San spirit-world art — shrines still active
Tsodilo Hills
Botswana · ~2,000 BP · 4,500+ images
Four quartzite hills on the Kalahari edge — 4,500+ paintings, highest concentration per km² in the world. San call it "the Rock that Whispers." The eland is central to San cosmology.
Highest density per km² in the world
Twyfelfontein
Namibia · 6,000–2,000 BP · 2,000+ images
Largest petroglyph concentrations in Africa. 235 sandstone surfaces: rhino, elephant, giraffe, ostrich, lion-man therianthrope. Giraffes = 40% of all images. Namibia's first World Heritage Site.
Namibia's first World Heritage Site
Drakensberg
South Africa / Lesotho · ~3,000 BP
The finest San rock painting tradition. Trance dances, rain-making, eland hunts, therianthropic transformation. Shamans painted portals to the spirit world. One of the last painters, Lindiso Dyantyi, worked into the 1930s.
Finest San tradition — shamanic art
Brandberg
Namibia · ~2,000 BP
Namibia's highest mountain. Home to the "White Lady" (actually a male figure in trance). Thousands of San paintings. On the UNESCO Tentative List.
The "White Lady" — Africa's most famous painting
The Desert's Autobiography
Saharan rock art unfolds in five periods. Each records a different climate, economy, and relationship with the land. Together they document the transformation of the world's largest desert from savanna to sand.
Large Wild Fauna
12,000–6,000 BP
The oldest Saharan art. Animals that no longer exist in the region.
Subjects: Hippos, rhinos, elephants, giraffes, aurochs
Climate: Green Sahara — rivers, lakes, savanna
Round Head
9,500–7,000 BP
Tassili specialty. Featureless round heads. The most mysterious Saharan art.
Subjects: Abstract forms, ritual figures
Climate: Mega-lakes, abundant wildlife
Pastoral
7,000–3,200 BP
The largest body of Saharan art. Documents Africa's agricultural revolution.
Subjects: Cattle herds, sheep, goats
Climate: Drying begins — pastoralism replaces hunting
Horse
3,200–1,000 BP
Introduction of the horse. Chariots cross the desert.
Subjects: Horses, chariots, warriors
Climate: Arid — Sahara forming
Camel
3,000–2,000 BP
The final period. The camel arrives. Tifinâgh script appears.
Subjects: Camels, cattle, goats
Climate: Full desert
The Accidental Climate Record
The artists of the Sahara were not climate scientists. They painted what they hunted, herded, and revered. But in doing so, they created one of the most comprehensive environmental records on Earth — a 12,000-year dataset encoded in pigment and stone.
The Large Wild Fauna period records a Sahara that held hippos, crocodiles, elephants, and rhinoceros — animals requiring permanent water, dense vegetation, and stable ecosystems. The Pastoral period records the domestication of cattle and the spread of herding across what was still grassland. The Horse and Camel periods record the progressive drying that forced populations south to the Sahel and east to the Nile.
In southern Africa, the record runs deeper. The San painted not landscapes but cosmologies — the eland dance, the rain animal, the therianthropic transformation of shamans into spirit beings. These encode not climate data but cognitive data: evidence that Homo sapiens had developed symbolic thought, religious practice, and artistic tradition at least 27,000 years before Sumerian cuneiform.
The Dabous Giraffes in Niger stand 5.4 metres tall — the largest animal carvings on the planet — in a desert where no giraffe has walked for thousands of years. The Cave of Swimmers in Egypt shows humans swimming in a region receiving less than 1mm of annual rainfall. Twyfelfontein records rhinoceros, elephant, and giraffe in a valley that today supports only sparse scrubland.
Across the continent, the stone remembers what the landscape has forgotten. Two million images. Fifty thousand sites. Seventy-five thousand years. The longest-running documentation project in human history — and nobody planned it.
Spotlight
The Dabous Giraffes — Niger
Two life-size giraffes carved into sandstone where the Ténéré Desert meets the Aïr Mountains. The larger measures 5.4 metres from ears to hind leg — the largest animal petroglyph on Earth. Carved 6,000–8,000 years ago using scraping, smoothing, and deep engraving, without metal tools.
Each giraffe has an incised line from its mouth leading to a small human figure below. This motif appears across Saharan rock art but remains unexplained — domestication attempt, spiritual connection, or myth. The surrounding outcrop holds 828 additional engravings: 704 animals (46% bovines, 16% ostriches, 16% antelope, 16% giraffes), 61 humans, and 17 Tifinâgh inscriptions.
First recorded by Christian Dupuy in 1987. By 1999, the Bradshaw Foundation and UNESCO created a silicon mould and aluminium casts after damage from trampling and graffiti. One cast stands at Agadez airport. A well was sunk nearby to support a Tuareg community who serve as permanent custodians.
5.4 m
Height of the larger giraffe
828
Total engravings at site
6,000–8,000
Years before present
1987
First recorded
Spotlight
Laas Geel — Somaliland
Between Hargeisa and Berbera, in granite rock shelters, lie the best-preserved prehistoric paintings in Africa. Polychrome cattle with curved horns, streaked necks, and prominent udders stand above small human figures with outstretched arms. Some cattle wear what appear to be ceremonial robes.
Local communities called the site "the place of devils" for centuries. A French team led by Xavier Gutherz formally documented it in 2002. The vivid colours survive because granite overhangs shield them from wind and rain.
Laas Geel cannot receive UNESCO World Heritage status. Somaliland declared independence from Somalia in 1991 but is not internationally recognised. Somalia's government has not ratified UNESCO's World Heritage Convention. One of the most significant archaeological sites in Africa has no international legal protection because of a political boundary the paintings predate by 5,000 years.
UNESCO Rock Art Heritage Sites in Africa
75,000 Years in Stone
~75,000 BCE
Blombos Cave, South Africa. Engraved ochre with crosshatch patterns — the oldest symbolic art in Africa.
~27,500 BCE
Apollo 11 Cave, Namibia. Painted quartzite slabs — Africa's oldest figurative rock art. Named after the moon landing during the dig.
~12,000 BCE
Saharan rock art begins. Large Wild Fauna period — hippos, elephants, rhinos in what is now the driest desert on Earth.
~9,500 BCE
Round Head period, Tassili n'Ajjer. Mysterious figures with featureless heads. Lake Mega-Chad is the size of the Caspian Sea.
~7,000 BCE
Pastoral period begins. Cattle replace wild fauna as the dominant subject. Africa's agricultural revolution documented in real time.
~6,000 BCE
Dabous Giraffes, Niger. Two life-size giraffe petroglyphs — the largest animal carvings in the world. 5.4 metres tall.
~5,000 BCE
Twyfelfontein, Namibia. San hunter-gatherers engrave animals near a desert spring. 2,000+ images over the next 4,000 years.
~3,500 BCE
Laas Geel, Somaliland. Polychrome paintings of cattle in ceremonial robes. Known locally for centuries; unknown to science until 2002.
~3,200 BCE
Horse period. Chariots cross the Sahara. The desert is drying — populations retreat to the Nile, the Niger bend, the coast.
~3,000 BCE
Drakensberg, South Africa. San shamans paint trance dances, rain-making, therianthropes — portals to the spirit world.
~1,000 BCE
Camel period. The final chapter of Saharan rock art. Tifinâgh script appears. Trans-Saharan trade routes are born.
1930s CE
Lindiso Dyantyi, one of the last San painters, works in the Drakensberg. A 27,000-year tradition ends.
2002
Laas Geel discovered by French archaeologists. 5,000-year-old paintings in pristine condition. No UNESCO — Somaliland is unrecognised.
“The stone remembers what the landscape has forgotten.”
Every giraffe carved in a desert where no giraffe walks, every hippo painted in sand that holds no water, every swimming figure in a land with no rain — is a data point. Africa's rock art is not decoration. It is testimony. The longest-running documentation project in human history, 75,000 years old, still readable, and nobody planned it.
Sources: ICOMOS Southern African Rock Art Sites report (Deacon, 1997) · UNESCO World Heritage Centre · Trust for African Rock Art (TARA) / British Museum African Rock Art Archive · Bradshaw Foundation · Lewis-Williams, J.D., San Rock Art (2013) · Smarthistory, "Prehistoric rock art in North Africa" · Henshilwood et al., Blombos Cave · Dupuy, C. (1987) Dabous · Gutherz, X. (2002) Laas Geel · Wild Morocco rock art guide.
© Dancing with Lions · All data compiled from institutional sources. Site coordinates approximate.