Heritage with Related Tags
Rock Drawings in Valcamonica
Located in the Lombardy Plain, Valcamonica is home to one of the world’s largest collections of prehistoric rock art – more than 140,000 symbols and motifs carved into the rock over a period of 8,000 years, depicting themes related to agriculture, navigation, warfare and magic.
Wadi Rum Protected Area
The site covers 74,000 hectares and is listed as a mixed natural and cultural heritage site in southern Jordan, close to the border with Saudi Arabia. The site features a diverse desert landscape, including a series of narrow canyons, natural arches, towering cliffs, slopes, large landslides and caves. The rock paintings, inscriptions and archaeological remains at the site testify to 12,000 years of human habitation and interaction with the natural environment. The combination of 25,000 rock carvings and 20,000 inscriptions traces the evolution of human thought and the early development of the alphabet. The site shows the evolution of animal husbandry, agriculture and urban activities in the region.
Elephanta Caves
Located on an island in the Sea of Oman near Mumbai, the "City of Caves" features a series of rock paintings related to the worship of Shiva. Indian art found its most perfect expression here, especially in the huge high reliefs in the main cave.
Rock Paintings of the Sierra de San Francisco
From 100 BC to 1300 AD, the San Francisco Mountains (in the El Vizcaino Reserve in Baja California) were home to a group of people who have now vanished, but who left behind one of the world's most outstanding collections of rock art. The dry climate and inaccessibility of the area have allowed the paintings to be extremely well preserved. The paintings depict human figures and many animal species, and depict the relationship between humans and the environment, revealing a highly sophisticated culture. The composition and size of the paintings, the precision of the outlines and the diversity of the colors, and above all the number of rock art sites, are impressive testimony to a unique artistic tradition.
Chongoni Rock-Art Area
The area, located in a forested granite hill on the central highlands of Malawi, covers an area of 126.4 square kilometres and contains 127 sites, making it the richest region of rock art in Central Africa. They reflect the relatively scarce rock art tradition of farmers, as well as paintings by BaTwa hunter-gatherers who have lived in the area since the Late Stone Age. The ancestors of the Chewa farmers, who lived here since the Late Iron Age, continued to paint rock art until the 20th century. The symbolic art on the rocks is closely associated with women and still has cultural significance among the Chewa people, and the sites are actively associated with ceremony and ritual.
Matobo Hills
The area displays a number of unique rock formations that tower above the granite shield that covers much of Zimbabwe. These large stones provide a wealth of natural shelter and have been associated with human habitation from the Early Stone Age through to the Early Historic period, and intermittently since. It also features an outstanding series of rock paintings. The Matobo Hills remain a focal point for local communities, who still use shrines and sacred sites that are closely linked to traditional, social and economic activities.
Ecosystem and Relict Cultural Landscape of Lopé-Okanda
The Lope-Okanda Ecosystem and Cultural Site demonstrates an unusual interface between dense and well-preserved tropical rainforest and remnant savannah environments, rich in species, including endangered large mammals and habitats. The site demonstrates ecological and biological processes by which species and habitats adapted to post-glacial climate change. It contains evidence of successive migrations of different peoples who left behind a wealth of well-preserved remains of habitation on mountaintops, in caves and around shelters, evidence of iron working, and some 1,800 remarkable petroglyphs (rock engravings). The property's Neolithic and Iron Age sites and the rock art found there reflect a major migration route of Bantu and other peoples from West Africa along the Ogowe River Valley to the north in the dense evergreen Congo forests and east-central and southern Africa, a route that shaped the development of all of sub-Saharan Africa.
Tsodilo
Tsodilo is known as the "Louvre of the Desert" for its one of the highest concentrations of rock art in the world. More than 4,500 rock paintings are preserved in just 10 square kilometres of the Kalahari Desert. The archaeological record in the area chronicles human activity and environmental change over at least 100,000 years. In this harsh environment, local communities consider Tsodilo a place of worship frequented by ancestral spirits.
Sulaiman-Too Sacred Mountain
The Holy Mountain of Suleiman-To, Kyrgyzstan, is located in the Fergana Valley, the backdrop of the city of Osh, at the crossroads of an important route of the Silk Road in Central Asia. For more than 1,500 years, Suleiman has been a beacon for travelers and is revered as a holy mountain. Its five peaks and slopes are home to many ancient places of worship and caves with petroglyphs, as well as two largely reconstructed 16th-century mosques. So far, 101 petroglyph sites have been inscribed on the heritage list, representing humans and animals as well as geometric shapes. The site has 17 places of worship, many of which are still in use and many of which have ceased to be used. These places of worship are scattered around the peaks and connected by footpaths. These places of worship are believed to cure anemia, headaches and backaches, and to grant blessings of longevity. The worship of this mountain is a blend of pre-Islamic and Islamic beliefs. The site is believed to be the most complete example of a holy mountain in Central Asia, and people have worshipped it for thousands of years.
Ḥimā Cultural Area
The Hima cultural area is located in the arid mountains of southwestern Saudi Arabia, on one of the ancient caravan routes of the Arabian Peninsula, and contains a rich collection of rock art depicting hunting, animals, plants and lifestyles over 7,000 years of cultural continuity. Throughout the ages, until the end of the 20th century, travelers and armies camped at the site left behind a large number of rock inscriptions and petroglyphs, most of which are well preserved. The inscriptions are written in different scripts, including Musnad, Aramaic-Nabataean, South Arabian, Taimudic, Greek and Arabic. The property and its buffer zone also contain a rich collection of unexcavated archaeological resources, including cairns, stone structures, tombs, scattered stone tools and ancient wells. The site is the oldest known toll station on an important ancient desert caravan route, and the Bi'r Ḥimā well here is at least 3,000 years old and still produces fresh water.
Petroglyphs within the Archaeological Landscape of Tamgaly
Around the lush Tamgaly Gorge, in the vast and arid Chuli Mountains, are clustered some 5,000 petroglyphs (rock engravings) dating from the second half of the second millennium BC to the early 20th century. Distributed in 48 complexes with associated settlements and cemeteries, these petroglyphs bear witness to pastoralism, social organization and rituals of nomadic peoples. Human settlements at the site are often multi-layered, indicating occupation through the ages. Numerous tombs have also been found, including stone walls with chests and sarcophagi (Middle and Late Bronze Age) and stone and earth mounds (gurgans) (Early Iron Age to present day). The central gorge contains the densest concentration of engravings and what are believed to be altars, suggesting that these sites were used for rituals.
Twyfelfontein or /Ui-//aes
Twyfelfontein is home to one of the largest concentrations of rock art in Africa. Most of the well-preserved rock art depicts rhinos, ostriches and giraffes. The site also includes six paintings of human and animal footprints, and rock shelters with figures carved in red ochre. Objects from two areas date back to the Late Stone Age. The site documents the ritual practices of hunter-gatherer communities in this part of southern Africa over a period of at least 2,000 years, with extensive and high-quality documentation, and eloquently illustrates the connection between ritual and economic practices of hunter-gatherers.
Petroglyphs of Lake Onega and the White Sea
The site contains 4,500 rock carvings from the Neolithic period (6-7 thousand years ago) and is located in the Republic of Karelia, Russian Federation. It is one of the largest rock art sites in Europe and documents the Neolithic culture of Fennoscandia. The property group includes 33 sites in two parts 300 km apart: 22 rock art sites on Lake Onega in the Podolsky District with more than 1,200 figures and 11 rock art sites on the White Sea in the White Sea District with 3,411 figures. The rock art figures on Lake Onega are mostly birds, animals, half-human and half-animal figures, and geometric shapes that may be symbols of the moon and the sun. The rock art on the White Sea mostly consists of carvings depicting hunting and sailing scenes, including related equipment and animal and human footprints. They show important artistic qualities and testify to the creativity of the Stone Age. The rock paintings are associated with sites such as settlements and cemeteries.
Rock Art in the Hail Region of Saudi Arabia
The property consists of two parts located in the desert landscape: Mount Umm Sinman in Juba and Mount Manyur and Mount Rat in Shuwaymis. There was once a lake at the foot of Mount Umm Sinman, now disappeared, which was a source of fresh water for people and animals in the southern part of the great Narfud Desert. The ancestors of today's Arabs left numerous petroglyphs and inscriptions on the rock faces, leaving traces of their passage. Mount Manyur and Mount Rat form rocky cliffs of a river valley, now covered by sand. They display countless human and animal images covering 10,000 years of history.
Chiribiquete National Park – “The Maloca of the Jaguar”
Chiribiquete National Park is the largest protected area in Colombia and is the meeting point of four biogeographic provinces: Orinoco, Guiana, Amazonas and Northern Andes. The National Park therefore guarantees the connectivity and preservation of the biodiversity of these provinces, constituting an interactive scene where the diversity and endemism of flora and fauna flourish. One of the characteristics of Chiribiquete is the presence of tepuis (table-top mountains), steep sandstone plateaus that stand out from the forest, creating a spectacular landscape enhanced by their remoteness, inaccessibility and excellent conservation. Indigenous peoples carved more than 75,000 statues on the walls of 60 rock shelters dating back to 20,000 BC, and they are still being produced today by the original peoples under the protection of the National Park. These murals depict hunting scenes, wars, dances and rituals, as well as species of flora and fauna, and especially the worship of the jaguar, a symbol of strength and fertility. The indigenous communities do not live directly on the site, and they believe that Chiribiquete is a sacred place that cannot be visited and should be left as it is.
Petroglyphic Complexes of the Mongolian Altai
The extensive rock carvings and funerary monuments found at these three sites illustrate cultural development in Mongolia over a 12,000-year period. The earliest images reflect a period when the region was partly forested (11,000-6,000 BC), with valleys providing habitat for hunters of large game. Later images show a transition to pastoralism as the primary way of life. More recent images show a transition to a nomadic lifestyle dependent on horses in the early 1st millennium BC, the Scythian period, and the late Turkic period (7th and 8th centuries AD). These carvings make a valuable contribution to our understanding of prehistoric communities in North Asia.
Rock-Art Sites of Tadrart Acacus
This rocky massif on the border of Tassiriy 'Ajjer in Algeria is also a World Heritage Site and contains thousands of cave paintings in a variety of styles dating from 12,000 BC to 100 AD. These paintings reflect the remarkable changes in flora and fauna, as well as the lifestyles of the different peoples who emerged in the Sahara.
Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula
The Late Prehistoric rock art sites along the Mediterranean coast of the Iberian Peninsula are exceptionally large, and they vividly depict lifestyles at a critical stage in human development, with unique styles and themes.
Chongoni Rock-Art Area
The area, located in a forested granite hill on the central highlands of Malawi, covers an area of 126.4 square kilometres and contains 127 sites, making it the richest region of rock art in Central Africa. They reflect the relatively scarce rock art tradition of farmers, as well as paintings by BaTwa hunter-gatherers who have lived in the area since the Late Stone Age. The ancestors of the Chewa farmers, who lived here since the Late Iron Age, continued to paint rock art until the 20th century. The symbolic art on the rocks is closely associated with women and still has cultural significance among the Chewa people, and the sites are actively associated with ceremony and ritual.