Best Rock Art

The Ennedi Massif is a vast sandstone plateau located in northeastern Chad within the Sahara Desert. It’s recognized by UNESCO for its exceptional geological formations and remarkably well-preserved prehistoric rock art dating back thousands of years. The area also contains a small population of des...

Jebel Khazali is a sandstone mountain in Wadi Rum, southern Jordan, containing a narrow fissure canyon that visitors can enter on foot. Its rock surfaces preserve petroglyphs and inscriptions associated with different periods and peoples, including Nabataean and Thamudic writing, as well as images o...

Located on the Ennedi Plateau in northeastern Chad, this archaeological site contains thousands of prehistoric rock art images. The engravings and paintings, largely dating to the Neolithic era, depict pastoral and hunting scenes that document the region's environmental transition from a humid clima...

Pedra Pintada is an archaeological rock shelter near Monte Alegre in Pará, Brazil, rather than simply a free-standing granite monolith. Excavations there uncovered stone tools, food remains, pigments, and rock paintings associated with early human occupation of the lower Amazon region. Radiocarbon e...

Pictograph Cave is a notable lava tube in El Malpais National Monument, New Mexico, renowned for preserving historic Native American rock art.

Matobo National Park is a protected area in Zimbabwe, originally established in 1926, making it the country's oldest national park. The park is situated within the Matobo Hills, a UNESCO World Heritage cultural landscape designated in 2003. It is distinguished by its striking granite rock formations...

Ana Kai Tangata is a coastal lava-tube cave on Rapa Nui, Chile, notable for surviving ochre paintings associated with the island's birdman tradition.

Brandberg is a prominent granite massif in the northwestern Namib Desert of Namibia, distinguished as the country's highest mountain at 2,573 meters. It rises abruptly from the surrounding flat desert landscape as an isolated highland, or inselberg, covering an area of approximately 650 square kilom...

A granite dome north of Harare, Zimbabwe, renowned for San Bushmen rock paintings estimated to be several thousand years old.

The Spitzkoppe Massif is a cluster of stark, isolated granite peaks located in the Namib Desert of central Namibia. The group includes the Gross Spitzkoppe and the Pontok mountains, which rise abruptly from the surrounding flat plains and are often referred to as the "Matterhorn of Africa." The area...

Petroglyph National Monument is a U.S. National Monument located on the West Mesa of Albuquerque, New Mexico, established in 1990. It protects an estimated 24,000 petroglyph images carved into volcanic basalt rocks by Ancestral Puebloan peoples and early Spanish settlers. The monument spans 17 miles...

The Cederberg is a mountainous region of the Western Cape province of South Africa, north of Cape Town. Its landscape is characterized by weathered sandstone cliffs, arches, caves, and formations such as the Maltese Cross and Wolfberg Arch, while higher areas also contain distinctive vegetation adap...

Altafjorden is a fjord in Finnmark county, Norway, internationally famous for the Alta Rock Art carvings, a UNESCO World Heritage Site dating back to approximately 4200 BC.

The Brandberg Massif is a circular granite mountain in the Namib Desert of Namibia, notable for containing the country's highest peak and ancient San rock paintings.

Henri Lhote was a French archaeologist and explorer who extensively documented and publicized the prehistoric rock art of the Sahara Desert.