Best Petroglyph

The Great Gallery is a rock-art panel in Horseshoe Canyon, a detached unit of Canyonlands National Park in Utah. Its paintings and engravings are associated with the Barrier Canyon style and include large, tapered anthropomorphic figures that are often shown without arms or legs. The panel is used b...

Murujuga, also known as the Burrup Peninsula, is an Aboriginal cultural landscape in the Dampier Archipelago of Western Australia. Its volcanic rocks carry an estimated one to two million petroglyphs, including human figures, marine animals, and species that are now locally extinct. The assemblage r...

Kakadu National Park in Australia's Northern Territory contains numerous Aboriginal rock-art sites, including Ubirr and the galleries around Nourlangie. The paintings and engravings include human figures, animals, hunting scenes, ceremonial imagery, and examples of the X-ray style, which shows inter...

Río Pinturas Rock Art is a prehistoric archaeological complex in Santa Cruz Province, Argentina, associated with the Cueva de las Manos in a canyon of the Pinturas River. Its painted panels include hundreds of stenciled human hands, as well as images of guanacos, rheas, geometric forms, and hunting...

The Rock Art of Alta is a group of prehistoric carvings and paintings at 45 sites around the head of Alta Fjord in northern Norway. The panels were produced by hunter-gatherer communities over a period extending from roughly 5000 BCE to the beginning of the Common Era. They show people, reindeer, el...

Little Petroglyph Canyon is a rock-art locality within the Coso Range at Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake in California. The canyon contains about 20,000 documented images pecked, engraved, or abraded into the dark desert varnish on basalt rocks. The motifs include animals, human or anthropomorp...

Akakus Rock Art refers to the prehistoric paintings and engravings found in the Tadrart Acacus mountain range of southwestern Libya. The imagery records changing environments and human activities across the Sahara, including animals that no longer live in the region and scenes associated with pastor...

Tadrart Acacus Rock Art is a large concentration of prehistoric paintings and engravings in the Tadrart Acacus mountains of southwestern Libya. The images include wild animals, domesticated cattle, human figures, hunting scenes, and later representations of pastoral and equestrian life, reflecting l...

The rock art associated with Chiribiquete is found in painted shelters beneath tepui formations in Colombia's Amazon region. UNESCO records about 75,000 pictographs on the walls of 60 shelters, including human figures, animals, hunting, battles, dances, and ceremonies. The imagery is linked in inter...

Twyfelfontein, also called /Ui-//aes, is a rock-art site in northwestern Namibia with a large concentration of prehistoric engravings and some painted motifs. The images include rhinoceroses, elephants, giraffes, ostriches, human figures, and human and animal footprints. UNESCO interprets the site a...

The Hjemmeluft Petroglyphs are part of the Alta Rock Carvings in northern Norway, a UNESCO World Heritage property. The carvings were made on exposed rock surfaces by hunter-gatherer communities and show people, reindeer, elk, boats, fish, bears, and geometric motifs. They were produced over a long...

The Murujuga Petroglyphs are a significant collection of ancient rock art located on Western Australia’s Burrup Peninsula. These engravings, primarily etched into granite, represent one of the world's largest concentrations of petroglyphs. The site contains over one million individual images, many d...

The Tassili n'Ajjer petroglyphs are ancient rock carvings found in southeastern Algeria. These sandstone panels display a remarkable record of human activity from Neolithic times through to historic periods, representing some of the oldest known artistic expression in North Africa. The site’s extens...

The Côa Valley petroglyphs represent a remarkable collection of prehistoric images etched into sandstone boulders. Located in northeastern Portugal, this UNESCO World Heritage Site features an exceptionally high density of Paleolithic rock art dating back over 40,000 years. These open-air carvings p...

The Valcamonica Archaeological Park preserves an exceptional collection of prehistoric rock art in northern Italy. These petroglyphs, etched into limestone cliffs by Bronze Age and Iron Age peoples, represent one of Europe’s largest known concentrations of ancient engravings. Dating back approximate...

The Serra da Capivara complex showcases extensive prehistoric petroglyphs carved into sandstone cliffs within Piauí, Brazil. Designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, these artworks represent some of the earliest known examples of human artistic expression in the Americas. Dating back potentially ove...

Horshoe Canyon’s Great Gallery showcases extensive petroglyphs carved into sandstone walls within Utah's canyonlands. These ancient rock art panels, created between roughly 2000 BCE and 1000 CE, depict human and animal figures offering insight into the beliefs and practices of ancestral Puebloan peo...

The Winnemucca Lake Petroglyphs are carved panels on tufa formations beside the former Winnemucca Lake subbasin in northwestern Nevada. Their deeply incised lines, cupules, and branching geometric forms have been dated through carbonate layers and associated lake deposits to intervals between about...

Found in Nevada, the Pyramid Lake Petroglyphs are among the oldest known rock engravings in North America, dating back at least 14,800 years.

The Maros-Pangkep rock art consists of petroglyphs found within limestone caves on Sulawesi Island, Indonesia. These images, primarily hand stencils, are exceptionally significant as some date back at least 39,900 years, representing some of the earliest known figurative artwork globally. The sites...

The Tanum Rock Carvings represent a significant archaeological find in Bohuslän, Sweden. These petroglyphs, dating from approximately 1700 to 500 BCE, constitute one of Europe's most concentrated collections of Bronze Age rock art. They provide valuable insight into the beliefs and practices of com...

The Vitlycke Museum Petroglyphs are part of the rock-art landscape of Tanum in western Sweden, a UNESCO World Heritage site. The carvings were made during the Nordic Bronze Age and include people, animals, boats, weapons, and other symbols cut into exposed granite surfaces. The museum provides acces...

Big Petroglyph Canyon lies in the Coso Range of California, within the area associated with Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake. Its rock art includes thousands of images carved into volcanic rock, with bighorn sheep, human figures, hunting scenes, and abstract forms among the recurring subjects. T...

The Onega Petroglyphs are a group of prehistoric rock carvings on the shores and islands of Lake Onega in the Republic of Karelia, Russia. The images include birds, animals, human figures, boats, and geometric signs, and are generally associated with Neolithic communities of the region. Together wit...

The Renegade Canyon Petroglyphs are located in the Coso Range within the China Lake area of California's Mojave Desert. The rock art includes numerous pecked and carved images, especially bighorn sheep, along with human figures, hunting-related motifs, and abstract designs. The panels were created b...

The Coso Rock Art District preserves a remarkable collection of prehistoric petroglyphs carved into volcanic rock in California’s Great Basin. This site boasts an estimated 100,000 figures created by the Great Basin people between approximately 8,000 and 2,000 years ago. Researchers and archaeologis...

The Bhimbetka Rock Shelters are an archaeological site in Madhya Pradesh, India, inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003. The shelters contain rock paintings spanning from the Paleolithic through historic periods, depicting hunting scenes, dances, and daily life across thousands of years o...

The White Shaman Mural is a complex petroglyph and pictograph located within the Lower Pecos Canyonlands of Texas. Created by Indigenous peoples associated with the Pecos River culture, it’s notable for its intricate blending of styles – including the distinctive Pecos River motif – and represents o...

Writing-on-Stone, also called Áísínai'pi, is a cultural landscape in southern Alberta along the Milk River, where sandstone cliffs preserve Blackfoot rock art and other archaeological evidence. Petroglyphs and pictographs show human figures, animals, weapons, and symbolic forms made over different p...