Laas Gaal - Description

Description

The Laas Gaal cave paintings are thought to be some of the best preserved in Africa. Among other things, they depict cows in ceremonial robes accompanied by humans, who are believed to have been inhabitants of the region. The necks of the cows are embellished with a kind of plastron. Some of the cows are also portrayed wearing decorative robes. Besides long-horned cattle, the rock art also shows an image of a domesticated dog, several paintings of canidae as well as a giraffe.

Simon Reeve visited the cave paintings as part of his television programme Places That Don't Exist. Amazed at the excellent preservation and vibrant colors of the paintings, he said that "Laas Ga'al, it transpires, is probably the most significant Neolithic rock painting site in the whole of Africa" and that "few people know that Somalia is home to such treasures." The late Osman Bile Ali, who showed Reeve the site, described the Laas Gaal cave paintings as beautiful.

Read more about this topic:  Laas Gaal

Famous quotes containing the word description:

    Do not require a description of the countries towards which you sail. The description does not describe them to you, and to- morrow you arrive there, and know them by inhabiting them.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    An intentional object is given by a word or a phrase which gives a description under which.
    Gertrude Elizabeth Margaret Anscombe (b. 1919)

    I fancy it must be the quantity of animal food eaten by the English which renders their character insusceptible of civilisation. I suspect it is in their kitchens and not in their churches that their reformation must be worked, and that Missionaries of that description from [France] would avail more than those who should endeavor to tame them by precepts of religion or philosophy.
    Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)