Kondoa Irangi Rock Paintings

- 4.724444444444435.833888888889Koordinaten: 4 ° 43 ' 28 " S, 35 ° 50 ' 2" O

The rock paintings of Kondoa are a collection of rock carvings in the district Kondoa in Tanzania. They are found in a series of hills that form the western slopes of the African grave breach and look down on the Maasai steppe. In the valley leads nearly 10 km to the east over the main road Dodoma - Arusha. Since 2006, the paintings are inscribed on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites.

Known are several hundred caves and rock overhangs, in which drawings are to be found. You have not yet been systematically explored. The first studies date back to Louis Leakey in the 1930s. His then expressed suspicion, the oldest drawings are several thousand years old, was doubted in the sequence. Meanwhile, however, consensus seems to be that the tradition is much older than 1500 years. For the age of the most recent paintings, there is no reliable information.

Many sites are connected to still practiced rituals of the Hadza and Sandawe of.

In the village of Kolo known paleoanthropologists Leakey family has set up in the 1970s, a small visitor center, which has now been adopted by the Tanzanian Department of Antiquities. This has also set leader, also to local committees take care of the sites.