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| ROCK ART IN AFRICA: World Heritage |
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Tsodilo
(Botswana)
Date of Inscription:
2001
Criteria: (i) (iii) (vi)
Core zone: 4800 ha
Buffer zone: 70400 ha
The Ngamiland District, north-west Botswana
S18 45 00 E21 44 00
Brief Description
With one of the highest concentrations
of rock art in the world, Tsodilo has been called
the 'Louvre of the Desert'. Over 4,500 paintings are
preserved in an area of only 10 km2 of the Kalahari
Desert. The archaeological record of the area gives
a chronological account of human activities and environmental
changes over at least 100,000 years. Local communities
in this hostile environment respect Tsodilo as a place
of worship frequented by ancestral spirits.
Justification for Inscription
Criterion i: For many thousands
of years the rocky outcrops of Tsodilo in the harsh
landscape of the Kalahari Desert have been visited
and settled by humans, who have left rich traces
of their presence in the form of outstanding rock
art.
Criterion iii: Tsodilo is a site that has witnessed
visits and settlement by successive human communities
for many millennia.
Criterion vi: The Tsodilo outcrops have immense
symbolic and religious significance for the human
communities who continue to survive in this hostile
environment.
>> Download
the Advisory Board
evaluation (289kb)
Information
courtesy of UNESCO
WHC
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