Magnificence Art on Cave Walls in Zimbabwe

January 23, 2010

Matobo Hills, Zimbabwe

The trail to the great cave of Inanke in southern Zimbabwe begins confidently with arrows painted on bare patches of granite and soon vanishes into four miles of often pathless wandering through fields of shoulder-high grass, dense scrub forests and formidable thorn bushes. Without the direction of our guide, the archaeologist Paul Hubbard, our group would never have found this cave containing some of the most magnificent prehistoric paintings in the world. But reach the approximately 30-foot-long frieze of intricately varied paintings and you will find it free of the man-made barriers, tourist hype and even substitution by reproductions that prevent modern visitors from directly experiencing most of the ancient sites in Europe.

The cave is one of hundreds painted by the San people (commonly called Bushmen) about 5,000 to 10,000 years ago and located in what is now Matobo National Park, an area best-known in recent years as a successful sanctuary for white and black rhinoceros. A sign at the entrance cautions visitors that "anyone seen or suspected of poaching activities may be shot on sight," and a ramble to the caves can entail an encounter with these solitary beasts or machine-gun-toting rangers, not to mention ubiquitous packs of baboons raging at trespassers crossing their territories. The park also contains a large population of leopards.

Inside the Great Inanke Cave
The cave holds a frieze of paintings that are from 5,000 to 10,000 years old.
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Herds of giraffe, eland, kudu, ostrich duiker and more fill a broad painted band running the length of the back wall.
Slideshow


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online.wsj.com...

Beautiful cave Art in Zimbabwe, what a great find.

[edit on 1-2-2010 by Aquarius1]