Rock paintings and petroglyphs of Sahara desert in Chad

The expedition to Chad among the mountains of Ennedi continues searching for caves once inhabited by primitive man, when the climate of Sahara desert was radically different from today and much more suitable to support some life. Being highly prone to erosion and therefore full of caves and natural refuges, the sandstone rock offered an ideal shelter to prehistoric people, and a closer look along the sides of these caves will reveal lot of cave paintings and petroglyphs left by ancient population, letting to know more about their way of life and how the Sahara desert was in the past.

Although over thousands of years the climate of Sahara desert has changed, becoming progressively drier, it is inhabited still today.

In fact, looking around in search of caves containing rock paintings left by ancient population, it is quite common to find shelters of nomadic people belonging to Tubu ethnic group, coming here to graze their farm animals, usually dromedaries, goats and sheeps.

Having a closer look to the surface of the mountains, we can see the typical pattern created by the erosion over the sandstone, which is called "elephant skin" since it really looks like the skin of such pachyderm. It is among these mountains of Ennedi region in Chad, in the heart of Sahara desert, that we will find lot of caves once inhabited by primitive man.

It is enough just to look at the walls of the cave from far away, to notice countless rock paintings, mostly red, that decorate the entrances to the various "rooms" and the ceiling. The rock art in the Sahara desert date back to different periods, starting from the Neolithic (the last phase of the Stone Age, about 10,000 years BC) until the beginning of the Christian era.

For rock art we usually mean rock paintings (or cave paintings) and petroglyphs. The first were made by just using some kind of dye to paint directly in the rock, while petroglyphs were produced by engraving the rock (the sandstone is very soft) using a variety of tools. The rock art of Sahara desert is extremely interesting because it shows an environment totally different from today, populated by horses, zebras, buffaloes and of course humans, represented by shapes of great artistic value.

The age of cave paintings can be hypothesized on the basis of the drawing's style and the subject that they represent: generally, the rock paintings with softer lines that illustrate buffaloes with large horns and other animals typically wild, are the oldest (up to 7,000 years BC), while those with cattle having current features, men armed by bow, horses and camels (sometimes pulling carts) are the certainly the most recent (between 3,000 and 200 years BC). As we will see later, the most "stylized" shapes with lot of sharp corners, are the most contemporary and are probably dating back just to the era of Islamization (about a thousand years ago).

The conglomerate rocks are quite widespread in this region of Sahara desert and sometimes they look so regular, to seem artificially made by primitive men who lived in these caves, to create a kind of floor or facade.

But there is really no evidence about this: they are certainly natural and were formed by pebbles cemented together by sand over thousands and thousands of years.

The vault and walls of this huge cave are completely covered by thousands of wasp nests. It is probably not a good idea to enter this cave during the summer, when the very short rainy season attracts the insects.

An oddly shaped rock, which looks like a bottle, houses a small shelter along the base, showing very modern cave paintings (probably less than 1000 years old). Their age can be guessed due to the simple shapes with sharp corners. Even one thousands years ago people were already always in a hurry, not having time to make better paintings like those older seen before :-)

The expedition in the Ennedi continues searching for more rock paintings sites, traveling among a fantastic landscape. If you are interested in rock art, archaeology, geology, history of the climate and way of life of ancient population in North Africa, the Sahara desert is definitely where to go.

In addition to exciting rock art, the Ennedi region in Chad is also known for its numerous natural arches of sandstone, often of huge size and astonishing shapes. A very welcome hike in the middle of nowhere, reveals an absolutely surreal world.

The organ pipe rocks.

Other interesting things related to humans activity that can be found among the Sahara desert in Chad, are the tombs dating back to pre-Islamic times, which consist essentially in a pile of large stones to seal an underlying niche. Unfortunately, serious studies have never been carried out on these intriguing archaeological finds, so we do not know much about their complete history.

Much of this region of Sahara is crossed by dry beds of ancient rivers, some of them still filling a little bit during the short rainy season, letting some more vegetation to grow. However, a few steps away, without any availability of water, the true desert begins again.

The river bed is one of the best places to build a well. The water is good, as it is well filtered by the rocks and can be consumed without any problem, adding only a small amount of silver sulphate as a precautionary measure.

Traveling among more natural arches and beautiful sandstone formations in Chad.

Soon we find ourselves totally surrounded by these wonderful rock paintings, in excellent condition and very well highlighted on the rock, depicting cattle, goats and people with beautiful shapes (and with a large head) riding dromedaries.