Kondoa Rock-Art Sites

Kondoa Rock-Art Sites

The Kondoa Rock-Art Sites are located on the eastern edge of the East African Rift Valley in Dodoma Region, central Tanzania. Due to tectonic movements, the area features upright cliffs and rock shelters that served as canvases for the people who once lived there, who used rock art to document and express their lives and beliefs over a span of two millennia.

The Kondoa Rock-Art Sites are located on the eastern slopes of the Maasai Escarpment, adjacent to the East African Rift Valley, forming a natural rock shelter. The prominent sedimentary rock formations here are divided by tectonic faults, and the vertical surfaces have served as areas for rock paintings for nearly 2,000 years. Across an area exceeding 2,336 square kilometers, more than 150 rock art sites featuring Kondoa-style paintings have been discovered, many of which are high-quality, artistic, and serialized artworks that systematically depict the transition of the Kondoa people from a hunting and gathering lifestyle to an agro-pastoral economy. Some of these sites are believed to be related to the residents' spiritual beliefs, ceremonial traditions, and cosmology. Local people still maintain customs of worshiping at certain sites, praying for blessings and protection from evil spirits.

Kondoa Rock Art Sites

Why Go: The most serialized natural rock shelter

Continent: Africa【Africa】

Country/Region: Tanzania

Province/State: Dodoma Region

City: Dodoma