Dhaymoole is an archaeological site in the
Sahil province of
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 ...
. The site is a
cave
Caves or caverns are natural voids under the Earth's Planetary surface, surface. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. Exogene caves are smaller openings that extend a relatively short distance undergrou ...
that contains a collection of ancient
rock drawings
A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions ...
depicting a variety of animals as well as some unidentified symbols. These drawings were created during the third millennium BC.
Petroglyphs
The walls of the cave are full of infilled and outlined white
camel
A camel (from and () from Ancient Semitic: ''gāmāl'') is an even-toed ungulate in the genus ''Camelus'' that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. Camels have long been domesticated and, as livestock, they provid ...
s, unidentified
quadruped
Quadrupedalism is a form of locomotion in which animals have four legs that are used to bear weight and move around. An animal or machine that usually maintains a four-legged posture and moves using all four legs is said to be a quadruped (fr ...
s, circles, and symbols. Most of the quadrupeds are schematic and depicted upright, facing to the right.
The Caves of Dhaymoole are believed to be about 3000 to 5000 years old.
The cave also depicts the place of sunset and sunrise, with the
Sun
The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as visible light a ...
on one side and the
moon
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...
on the other side. It also depicts a
camel
A camel (from and () from Ancient Semitic: ''gāmāl'') is an even-toed ungulate in the genus ''Camelus'' that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. Camels have long been domesticated and, as livestock, they provid ...
,
giraffe
The giraffe is a large Fauna of Africa, African even-toed ungulate, hoofed mammal belonging to the genus ''Giraffa.'' It is the Largest mammals#Even-toed Ungulates (Artiodactyla), tallest living terrestrial animal and the largest ruminant on ...
,
elephant
Elephants are the largest living land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant ('' Loxodonta africana''), the African forest elephant (''L. cyclotis''), and the Asian elephant ('' Elephas maximus ...
and other wild animals, many of which have become extinct in the region.
Gallery
File:Dhaymoole Rock art - Camels.jpg,
File:Dhaymoole Rock art -3.jpg,
File:Dhaymoole Rock art in Somaliland.jpg,
File:Dhaymoole Rock art.jpg,
See also
*
Caves in Somaliland
*
Laas Geel
*
Dhambalin
*
History of Somaliland
References
Archaeological sites in Somaliland
Rock art in Africa
Sahil, Somaliland
Caves of Somaliland
Prehistoric Africa
{{Africa-archaeology-stub