Central Saharan rock art landscapes

Rock art is a ubiquitous feature of the central Sahara region. Thousands of pictograms (paintings) and petroglyphs (engravings) depicting isolated or clustered motifs---and often creating complex multi-layered palimpsests---are located all over the massifs and plateaus. The rock art represents residual, fragile and visual traces of the symbolic worlds of the diverse groups that inhabited and crossed the region over at least ten millennia and through significant climate shifts. It is a challenging heritage naturally embedded in the environment that had an active role in the construction of cultural landscapes and identities of the region.