Description of the attraction
The Tassilin-Ajer mountain range is located in the Sahara in southeastern Algeria. It is home to the largest of the 3000 rock art found in the desert. Numerous caves and arched vaults make this area unique on the mountain range. They were formed naturally from sandstone that has been exposed to wind and rainfall. The beds of dried up rivers - wadis, cut through the entire park, whose name means "Plateau of rivers".
The amazing rock painting found in 1909 dates back to 6000-2000 BC by scientists. The earliest depictions of animals are very realistic - elephants, crocodiles, giraffes, hippos, ostriches, buffaloes. Later drawings differ stylistically, on them you can see "ancient Bushmen" - people in masks with weapons. Drawings of the next period - III-I millennium BC. represent everyday scenes and domestic animals - goats, sheep, dogs, horses, women in long skirts, men in wide raincoats. These images refer to the work of the tribes of hunters and pastoralists, they are made schematically, but in multi-colored paints.
In the drawings of the 2nd millennium BC. you can see completely different characters - tall, fair-skinned warriors, horse carts. The latest images date back to 200-700 years. AD, they are also called the "camel period", when, due to climate change, these animals took the place of horses in the household. In total, there are hundreds of thousands of rock paintings in the reserve.
The Tassilin-Ajer plateau became a place where bones, scrapers, stone knives, arrowheads and spears from various materials and other tools of ancient people were found.
Since 1972, Tassilin-Ajer has been included in the Algerian National Reserve and the UNESCO World Heritage List.
