Archaeological Site Regions
Important regions include:
- Cave of Swimmers caves area, Gelf Kabir area, Egypt
- Tibesti, Chad
- Mesak Settafet, Libya
- Tadrart Acacus, Libya
- Tassili n'Ajjer, Algeria
- South Oran, Algeria
- Djelfa, Algeria
- Ahaggar, Algeria
- Draa River, Morocco
- Rock art of Figuig, Morocco
- Aïr Mountains, Niger
The cave paintings found at Tassili n'Ajjer, north of Tamanrasset, Algeria, and at other locations depict vibrant and vivid scenes of everyday life in the central North Africa between about 8000 BCE and 4000 BCE, in the Mesolithic (Middle Stone) age. They were executed by a hunting people in the Capsian period of the Neolithic age (3000 -1900 BC) who lived in a savanna region teeming with giant buffalo, elephant, rhinoceros, and hippopotamus, animals that no longer exist in the now-desert area. The pictures provide the most complete record of a prehistoric African culture.
One of the wadis containing 10,000 year old paintings at Tadrart Acacus was spray-painted over this year by a disgruntled Libyan tour guide.
Read more about this topic: Saharan Rock Art
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