Somaliland Somaliland, officially the Republic of Somaliland, is an List of states with limited recognition, unrecognised country in the Horn of Africa. It is located in the southern coast of the Gulf of Aden and bordered by Djibouti to the northwest, E ...

has many caves, some of which remain undiscovered. Such is the quality of the paintings that at least 10 sites, scattered across semi-desert terrain, are likely to be given World Heritage status. The complex cave and

rock shelter A rock shelter (also rockhouse, crepuscular cave, bluff shelter, or abri) is a shallow cave-like opening at the base of a bluff or cliff. In contrast to solutional caves (karst), which are often many miles long or wide, rock shelters are alm ...

s of Laas Geel, Dhagah Kureh, and Dhagah Nabi Galay lie just 30-45 minutes outside of

Hargeisa Hargeisa ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Somaliland, a ''List of states with limited recognition, de facto'' sovereign state in the Horn of Africa, still considered internationally to be part of Somalia. It is also th ...

, the capital of

, a self-declared republic. Exhibiting outstanding Neolithic rock art, the sites’ cave paints are considered to be some of the best preserved rock paintings in all of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

, and are essential to the Horn of Africa’s historical and heritage legacy.

With rock art

Laas Geel

Laas Geel(), also spelled Laas Gaal, are cave formations on the rural outskirts of

. They contain some of the earliest known

cave painting In archaeology, cave paintings are a type of parietal art (which category also includes petroglyphs, or engravings), found on the wall or ceilings of caves. The term usually implies prehistoric art, prehistoric origin. These paintings were often c ...

s in the

Horn of Africa The Horn of Africa (HoA), also known as the Somali Peninsula, is a large peninsula and geopolitical region in East Africa.Robert Stock, ''Africa South of the Sahara, Second Edition: A Geographical Interpretation'', (The Guilford Press; 2004), ...

. Laas Geel's rock art is estimated to date to somewhere between 9,000 and 3,000 years BC.

Dhagah Nabi Galay

One of the sites associated with Laas Geel, Dhagah Nabi Galay is unique in that it features what is considered to be the first examples of writing in East Africa. There has been minimal research conducted on this site, but it offers a wonderful opportunity to study the Neolithic Horn of Africa anterior to the introduction of Islam.The rock art features a script or writing system believed to have been developed by a Neolithic civilization in northern Somalia. Ancient inscriptions and writing systems have been found throughout northern Somalia, particularly at sites like Laas Geel and other rock art locations.

Dhagah Kureh

Dhagah Kureh translates to “the stone with the head” in the Somali language. The site is located in a beautiful and naturally green landscape with fertile farming lands nearby, and the rock shelters are made of stony outcrops with rocks resting on each other above an approximately 4 km-long granite range. The greatest number of rock art panels depicting large cows in Somaliland is found in Shelter 1 of Dhagah Kureh, making this site unique amongst the rock art sites of Somaliland.

Dhambalin

Dhambalin ("half, vertically cut mountain") is an archaeological site in the northwestern Sahil province of

. The

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

rock shelter, contains

rock art In archaeology, rock arts are human-made markings placed on natural surfaces, typically vertical stone surfaces. A high proportion of surviving historic and prehistoric rock art is found in caves or partly enclosed rock shelters; this type al ...

depicting various animals, such as horned cattle and goats, as well as giraffes, an animal no longer found in

region. The site also features the earliest known pictures of sheep in Somaliland. Discovered in autumn 2007, residents of Beenyo Dhaadheer reported the rock art to the Somali archaeologist Sada Mire, Director of the Department of Archaeology within the Ministry of Tourism and Culture of Somaliland.

Dhaymoole

Dhaymoole is an archaeological site in the Sahil province of

. The walls of the cave are full of infilled and outlined white camels, unidentified quadrupeds and symbols. Most of the quadrupeds are schematic and depicted upright facing right. Dhaymoole, Somaliland. Caves of Dhaymoole, believed to be about 3000 to 5000 years old.

Shimuhshimuh or Haadh

Rock art site of Haadh in Sanaag somaliland

Cave paintings have been found at Shimuhshimuh north of Erigavo. The painting were found by Jama Dabhaan and colleagues in 2010 but have been declared now after the photos taken were recovered. Other places at the Guban area north of Shimuhshimuh have also some of the oldest painting of animals in the

. The paintings of animals are the first to be found in

. Shimuhshimuh is a location close to Surad which is the highest mountain in Somaliland and Somalia.

References

External links

CyArk - Rock Art Sites of Somaliland
{{portal bar, Evolutionary biology, Paleontology Archaeological sites in Somaliland Prehistoric sites in Somaliland Stone Age Africa