These mysterious paintings are the essence of a brilliant ancient civilization. To this day, these murals have become one of the great mysteries in the history of human civilization.
The Sahara Was Once a Fertile Prairie
In 1933, Leo Frobenius, a renowned German Africanist, discovered during an expedition in Libya, on the Fezzan cliffs in the heart of the arid Sahara Desert, images of buffalo, elephants, ostriches, lions, ibex, goats, rhinoceroses, and even hippopotamuses.
Within a 60 km radius on either side of a dry branch of the ancient Wadi River, dark orange cracked cliffs are adorned with murals painted with ochre and white clay.
Subsequent studies confirmed that during the Paleolithic era, approximately 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, when humans first appeared in North Africa, the climate was much wetter here. The Sahara was not a desert but a lush prairie.
Hunting was the lifeblood of ancient people. Camels had not yet appeared in the Sahara; they came much later. However, rivers that now flow as dry beds once housed crocodiles. The last representatives of this reptile species currently live in a small reservoir in Hoggar at the edge of the desert.
Then, around 5 to 7 million years later, drought began, and the Sahara’s land gradually lost its moisture, with vegetation dying off. Herbivorous animals, followed by carnivorous ones, gradually disappeared from the Sahara. Animals retreated to distant forests and the grasslands of Central Africa.
Following the animals, nearly all humans left, with only a few capable of surviving in this area where very little water remained. They became nomads.
Murals on the cliffs in the Sahara Desert. (Illustrative image).
Centuries passed, and the nomadic peoples of the Sahara became the absolute masters of the desert. They controlled all the routes across the desert.
According to ancient historians, due to trade in salt and precious stones, the remaining people acquired great wealth, as confirmed by the Fezzan treasure troves discovered by Italian archaeologists in the 1960s, which contained numerous gold jewelry and Roman coins.
In addition to these treasures, many notable artifacts were found in tombs. There, cups and jewelry, combs made of ivory from the Etruscans, vases, and beads from the Phoenicians, among other items, were discovered. All these artifacts further affirm that the remaining people had extensive trade relations with all the civilized peoples of the ancient Mediterranean.
Scientists believe that this was the period when most of the murals appeared in the sharp mountains in the center of the desert. This area is even referred to as the “highland of many rivers” when life was still flourishing there.
Murals in the Desert
Through the study of a large number of cultural artifacts, it is said that 400 to 10,000 years ago, the Sahara was home to many tribes and peoples living on this fertile land, and they created such a highly developed culture.
The most prominent feature of this culture was the polishing of stones and the making of ceramics. This marked a milestone in the development of production. The murals also included Sahara script and ancient writing, indicating that their culture had developed to a fairly high level. The forms and techniques of the murals are quite complex, with rich and diverse content.
From the brush strokes, it can be seen that they are still primitive and straightforward. The colors used are those of earth and various stones, such as red derived from iron oxide and white from kaolin. Brown, blue, or green are also obtained from sedimentary rocks containing carbon.
They ground colored stones with water to create paint for the murals. Thanks to hydrolysis, the red colors seep into the rock, and prolonged contact with the stone will blend into a homogeneous entity, thus preserving the murals’ surfaces in a vibrant freshness over time. After thousands of years, the colors remain brilliantly fresh.
This is also one of many unique and strange aspects.
In 1933, a French cavalry unit arrived in the Sahara and accidentally discovered a cluster of murals stretching several kilometers in the Taxiritai and Enachen plateaus. Many of them are large, some reaching over a meter in height. Subsequently, many European and American scientists visited the site.
In 1956, a French expedition to the Sahara discovered as many as 10,000 murals. The following year, they brought back 11,600 square feet of photographs of the murals to Paris, which caused a stir in the global media at the time.
Among the murals, there are many images of heroic warriors, depicting an invincible and majestic appearance. Some hold long spears and round shields, sitting in powerful chariots, portraying scenes of battle.
There are people with bows and arrows, illustrating hunting scenes. There are also repeated images of smiling women.
Some figures appear to be offering sacrifices, as if welcoming angels from the heavens. There are even murals depicting homes, showing that the Sahara people lived in dome-shaped grass huts. Many ceramic items are also depicted in the paintings.
From these murals, it can be understood that dancing, hunting, sacrifices, and religious rituals were the main aspects of the customs and traditions of the inhabitants at that time. It is highly likely that people of that era created murals before or after battles, hunts, sacrifices, and dances to express their love for life and to motivate themselves.
Among the discovered murals, animal imagery is the most prevalent. Animals are depicted in fear, with their four legs raised as if to fly. The scenes of panic are very vivid. The artistic creation is unique and can be compared to any artistic masterpiece from any country of that time.
From these animal images, we can infer the natural conditions of the Sahara at that time. Some murals depict people on dugout canoes hunting hippopotamuses. Notably, the animals depicted in the murals appear in chronological order. From the earliest buffalo to elephants, antelopes, giraffes, and other grassland animals, they indicate that the climate of the Sahara was becoming increasingly arid.
To this day, the Sahara Desert remains a place filled with countless mysteries. Scientists suspect that there is a large water reservoir, along with the ruins of ancient fortifications buried beneath the desert sands. Currently, the Sahara Desert is home to about 2 million people, with a population density equivalent to 1/150 of that of the United States.
