Cave of Swimmers

The Cave of Swimmers is located in southwestern Egypt, near the border with Libya, in the Gilf el -Kebir plateau in the Sahara. It was discovered in October 1933 by the Hungarian explorer László Almásy ( László Ede Almásy ). It contains cave paintings of floating figures, of which it is believed that they originated 4000-9000 years ago.

During the expedition of 1933, Gilf Kebir, and Almásy roamed the Oweinat Mountains to Sudan. The discovery of these and other prehistoric rock carvings at Ain Dua, Karkur Tahl and Wadi Sora was the most important result of the expedition.

Almásy devoted the cave a chapter in his 1934 book " Unknown Sahara ". In it, he postulated that the swimming scenes are real pictures of life at that time and that consequently a climate change over the period must have occurred after the formation. This theory was so novel that its first editor added several footnotes, in which he did not share this view.

The cave is a central scene in the novel The English Patient and the movie based on it. However, the cave shown in the film is only a replica.