🇪🇸 Spain · Rock art
Altamira Cave
Solutrean–Magdalenian ~18–14 ka BP · Solutrean/Magdalenian Cantabrian
Great Ceiling of polychrome bison — the Paleolithic Sistine Chapel at Santillana del Mar.
🇫🇷 France · Rock art
Lascaux Cave
Upper Paleolithic (Solutrean/Magdalenian, ~17,000–15,000 BCE) · Cro-Magnon hunter-gatherer (Magdalenian)
Sealed Upper Paleolithic cave on the Vézère renowned as the 'Sistine Chapel of Prehistory' for about 600 parietal paintings and nearly 1,500 engravings executed with astonishing naturalism.
🇪🇸 Spain · Rock art
El Castillo Cave
Mousterian to Magdalenian ~150–11 ka BP · Neanderthal then Aurignacian to Magdalenian
Monte Castillo reference sequence cave with 40 ka red disks and 150 kyr stratigraphy.
🇨🇳 China · Rock art
Muztagh Ata Rock Glacier Petroglyph North Spur
Upper Palaeolithic to Iron Age (30000 BCE–500 CE) · Multi-period rock art
Muztagh Ata Rock Glacier Petroglyph North Spur in Xinjiang, Muztagh Ata, China is a Upper Palaeolithic to Iron Age (30000 BCE–500 CE) rock art attributed to Multi-period rock art.
🇿🇦 South Africa · Rock art
Drakensberg uKhahlamba Rock Art
Later Stone Age ~4000 BP–1800 CE · San (Bushman) hunter-gatherer
35,000 San paintings in 600 Drakensberg shelters - shamanic eland dance archive.
🇮🇷 Iran · Rock art
Behistun (Bisotun) Inscription of Darius I
Achaemenid Empire (Darius I) to Sassanian · Achaemenid Persian; Parthian Arsacid; Sassanian
522 BCE Darius trilingual on cliff 66 m high — cuneiform Rosetta for decipherment, Parthian–Sassanian roadside fringe.
🇮🇹 Italy · Rock art
Valcamonica Rock Engravings – Naquane National Park
Epipalaeolithic to modern with Iron Age peak · Camunni (Rhaetic-adjacent Alpine) and predecessors
140,000 figures on 2,000 Alpine slabs—world's densest European rock art valley (UNESCO 1979 No.1 Italy).
🇦🇷 Argentina · Rock art
Cueva de las Manos
Early Holocene to late Patagonia (~9300 BCE – 700 CE) · Patagonian hunter-gatherer (Tehuelche ancestors)
Canyon sandstone cave whose walls retain over 800 negative hand stencils made by spraying pigment through bone pipes around hands, interspersed with guanaco hunts, bola weapons and geometric discs.
🇪🇸 Spain · Rock art
La Pasiega Cave
Middle Paleolithic to Magdalenian ~64–11 ka BP · Neanderthal and later Solutrean/Magdalenian
Monte Castillo cave with 64 ka Neanderthal ladder motif and 700 parietal figures.
🇨🇳 China · Rock art
Zuojiang Huashan East Cliff — Fusui Mingjiang Rock Paintings
Bronze Age to Iron Age (Luoyue) · Luoyue (proto-Zhuang) Dian-related
Fusui east cliff of UNESCO Huashan 170-m hematite painting with 1100 frog-shamans and bronze drums, 500 BCE–200 CE.
🇪🇸 Spain · Rock art
Albarracín Rock Art — Pinsapar and Prado del Navazo
Epipalaeolithic to Iberian (8000 BCE – 500 CE) · Epipalaeolithic hunters, Neolithic, Chalcolithic Schematic, Iberian
Aragon pine forest 22 shelters Levantine white archers and schematic bull 6 ka BCE–Iberian, UNESCO 874.
🇨🇳 China · Rock art
Zuojiang Huashan Rock Art Cultural Landscape
Bronze Age to Eastern Han (Warring States 400 BCE – Han) · Luoyue (proto-Zhuang Baiyue)
Guangxi karst cliffs 38 panels 1900 frog-shaman figures 5th c. BCE–2nd c. CE, UNESCO 1508.
🇦🇿 Azerbaijan · Rock art
Gobustan Kichikdash South Petroglyphs
Upper Palaeolithic to Iron Age · Gobustan hunters, Kura-Araxes, Classical (Roman contact)
South slope of Kichikdash with 1100 boat and aurochs hunt cupule petroglyphs.
🇹🇩 Chad · Rock art
Ennedi Plateau & Niola Doa Rock Art
Neolithic to Islamic (6000 BCE–16th c CE) · Saharan herders (Bovid, Horse, Camel groups)
600-km Saharan massif with Niola Doa 200-m cattle-horse frieze and 3,000 images 6th millennium–16th c.
🇩🇿 Algeria · Archaeological wonder
Tassili n'Ajjer
Epipaleolithic to Late Pastoral (c.8000 BCE–1000 CE; major painting phases Round Head 6000 BCE–5000 BCE, Pastoral 4500–2000 BCE) · Kel Tamasheq predecessor hunter-gatherer / Pastoral Neolithic / Garamantes
72,000 km² sandstone plateau with one of world's largest rock art concentrations: 15,000 engravings and paintings spanning 6000 BCE–first centuries CE – Bubalus, Round Head (10,000–6000 BCE,…
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia · Rock art
Bir Hima Rock Petroglyphs and Inscriptions
Neolithic to Islamic (7000 BCE–1000 CE, peak South Arabian caravan 500 BCE–600 CE) · Neolithic hunter-pastoralists then South Arabian caravaneers (Qataban, Saba, Nabataean)
Caravan UNESCO 2021 on Najran incense route: 550 panels 100k petroglyphs 7000 BCE–Islamic with 28 caravan wells.
🇪🇸 Spain · Rock art
Siega Verde Rock Engravings – Águeda River
Upper Palaeolithic (Solutrean–Magdalenian) · Solutrean–Magdalenian hunter-gatherers of western Iberia
443 Palaeolithic figures on Águeda schist—UNESCO trans-frontier extension of Côa Valley (20–10k BCE).
🇮🇹 Italy · Rock art
Val Camonica Rock Art Dos Sotto Panel 44 — Southern Extension
Bronze-Iron Age (2000-500 BCE) · Camunian
Val Camonica Rock Art Dos Sotto Panel 44 — Southern Extension in Lombardy, Brescia, Italy is a Bronze-Iron Age (2000-500 BCE) rock art attributed to Camunian.
🇧🇷 Brazil · Rock art
Serra da Capivara
Paleo-Indian to Late Prehistoric (9000 BCE – 500 CE) · Nordeste / Agreste
Serra da Capivara in Piauí, Brazil is a Paleo-Indian to Late Prehistoric (9000 BCE – 500 CE) rock art attributed to Nordeste / Agreste culture.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Archaeological wonder
El-Qurn (Theban Peak)
Middle to Late New Kingdom and beyond (2100–1000 BCE cult) · Ancient Egyptian
420-m natural pyramid capping Thebes, shaping Valley of Kings orientation as Ta Dehent.
🇸🇪 Sweden · Megalith
Tanum Rock Carvings (Hällristningar Tanum)
Bronze Age · Nordic Bronze Age (Bohuslän rock art tradition)
UNESCO Bohuslän rock art — 600 panels / 2500 pecked figures (ships, sun, ploughs) on granite, 1700–500 BCE.
🇫🇷 France · Rock art
Lascaux — Ancillary Gallery Cheval Tache (Dordogne)
Upper Palaeolithic to Iron Age (30000 BCE–500 CE) · Palaeolithic to Iron Age
Lascaux — Ancillary Gallery Cheval Tache (Dordogne) in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Dordogne, Montignac, France is a Upper Palaeolithic to Iron Age (30000 BCE–500 C…
🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan · Rock art
Saimaluu-Tash West Ashu Pass Petroglyphs
Saka to Turkic Medieval · Saka, Wusun, Turkic
Western cirque shelf of Saimaluu-Tash at Ashu Pass, a glacial hanging valley 2 km west of Saimaluu-Tash I main valley floor at 3420 m.
🇵🇪 Peru · Rock art
Checta — Rock Art North Panel (Lima, Peru)
Upper Palaeolithic to Iron Age (30000 BCE–500 CE) · Palaeolithic to Iron Age
Checta — Rock Art North Panel (Lima, Peru) in Lima, Checta, Peru is a Upper Palaeolithic to Iron Age (30000 BCE–500 CE) rock art attributed to Palaeolithic…