🇵🇪 Peru · Rock art
Checta Petroglyphs
Initial Period to Late Horizon ~1500 BCE–1532 CE · Andean (Chavín-influenced to Inca)
450 boulder petroglyph field above Chillón River with 3,500-year rayed-head tradition.
🇵🇪 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…
🇪🇬 Egypt · Temple complex
Kuntillet Ajrud
Iron Age IIB (single-period) · Kingdom of Israel/Judah (Israelite)
Desert Israelite fortress (c.800 BCE) with 'YHWH and his Asherah' inscriptions and Bes frescoes.
🇦🇺 Australia · Rock art
Ubirr Rock Art
Late Pleistocene to present (~4000 BCE – contemporary) · Bininj/Mungguy (Aboriginal Australian)
Five main sandstone galleries on the Nadab floodplain edge of the Arnhem escarpment display the classic X-ray style: translucent kangaroo, emu, long-necked turtles and thylacine (Tasmanian tiger)…
🇪🇬 Egypt · Rock art
Wadi Sora Cave of Swimmers
Early to Mid Holocene (6000–3000 BCE) · Saharan pastoral Neolithic (Gilf Kebir)
Wadi Sora (Wadi Sura) Cave of Swimmers (Cave II) in Gilf Kebir is Saharan pastoral rock art 6000–3000 BCE, famous for 1933 Almasy discovery of 'swimming' floating figures (actually swimming in wadi…
🇺🇸 United States · Archaeological wonder
Fajada Butte
Pueblo II–III Bonito 1000–1150 CE · Ancestral Pueblo (Chacoan)
Chacoan Sun Dagger butte: three slabs create dagger beam on spirals marking solstices and lunar standstill.
🇫🇷 France · Rock art
Font-de-Gaume Cave
Magdalenian ~17–14 ka BP · Magdalenian
Vézère polychrome gallery with 230 Magdalenian figures, last original painted cave open to public.
🇮🇳 India · Rock shelter
Bhimbetka Satellite Shelter — IIB-33
Mesolithic (7000 BCE) · Mesolithic
Bhimbetka Satellite Shelter — IIB-33 in Madhya Pradesh, Bhimbetka outlier, India is a Mesolithic (7000 BCE) rock shelter attributed to Mesolithic culture.
🇪🇸 Spain · Rock art
Tito Bustillo Cave
Solutrean to Magdalenian ~18–11 ka BP · Magdalenian Cantabrian
Ribadesella polychrome Magdalenian cave sealed until 1968 with 14 ka harpoon culture art.
🇵🇪 Peru · Megalith
Saywite Monolith
Inca Late Horizon ca.1470 CE · Inca
2.28-m granite boulder with 203 miniature carvings, ca.1470 Inca hydraulic model.
🇳🇬 Nigeria · Rock art
Kainji Rock Art and Mounds
MSA to Iron Age (50,000 BCE–1800 CE; rock art 2000 BCE–500 CE) · MSA / Kintampo-related / Iron Age (Borgawa)
Kainji shoreline and islands host Middle Stone Age to Iron Age rock shelters with geometric rock art and 2,000-year mound settlements along Niger River, inundated partially 1968 by Kainji Dam.
🇳🇴 Norway · Rock art
Alta Rock Art
Late Stone Age to Early Iron Age (~7000 BCE – 0 CE) · Finnmark hunter-gatherer/fisher to early Sami ancestors
Northern Europe's largest petroglyph field preserves some 6,000 carved figures along the Alta Fjord raised shorelines, tracking post-glacial rebound chronology.
🇸🇪 Sweden · Rock art
Vitlycke Rock Carvings
Neolithic–Bronze Age (4000–1000 BCE) · Hunter-gatherer rock art tradition
Vitlycke Rock Carvings is a rock art site in Västra Götaland, Sweden featuring carvings and paintings on exposed bedrock dating from the Neolithic to Bronze Age (c.4000–1000 BCE).
🇹🇭 Thailand · Rock art
Ard Bury Rock Shelter
Chalcolithic (4500–3300 BCE) · Chalcolithic
Ard Bury Rock Shelter in Buriram Province, Thailand is a Chalcolithic (4500–3300 BCE) rock art attributed to Chalcolithic culture.
🇵🇪 Peru · Rock art
Toro Muerto Petroglyphs
Middle Horizon to Late Intermediate ~900–1450 CE · Wari to Collagua / Inca fringe
5,000-boulder petroglyph desert - world's densest - Wari-Collagua dancers over 10 km².
🇫🇷 France · Rock art
Rouffignac Cave
Magdalenian ~13 ka BP · Magdalenian
8 km mammoth gallery with 158 manganese woolly-mammoth figures and children's finger fluting.
🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan · Rock art
Saimaluu Tash Petroglyphs
Bronze Age to Turkic (~2000 BCE – 800 CE) · Andronovo, Saka, Turkic nomadic
Elevated 3,200-m boulder field on the Ferghana ridge preserving perhaps 107,000 images on 10,000 varnished basalt boulders, making it among the most numerous rock-art locales on earth.
🇲🇳 Mongolia · Rock art
Khoit Tsenkher South Gallery — Chandmani Base Cave Art
Upper Paleolithic to Mesolithic (19,000–8000 BCE) · Malta-Buret related early Holocene hunter
Sun-facing lower gallery with 15 ka ibex/ostrich ochre and pecked figures 220 m below main cave.
🇳🇦 Namibia · Rock art
Twyfelfontein Rock Engravings
Late Stone Age to early pastoral (6000 BCE – 1000 CE) · San hunter-gatherer (Ju/'hoansi ancestors)
Namibia's sole UNESCO World Heritage site besides Brandberg, Twyfelfontein holds over 2,500 engravings pecked into a 600-m sandstone outcrop of Etjo formation.
🇹🇿 Tanzania · Rock art
Mumba Rock Shelter (Lake Eyasi) – Middle Stone Age Stratigraphy
Middle Stone Age / Later Stone Age · Middle Stone Age hunter-gatherers
60 m deep sequence from Acheulean bifaces to 30 ka ostrich-eggshell beads and 19 ka geometric microliths bridging Middle Stone Age–Neolithic. Rock paintings overlie MSA horizons.
🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan · Rock art
Saimaluu-Tash West Lake Shelf Petroglyphs
Saka to Qarakhanid · Saka, Wusun, Qarakhanid
Lake-margin boulder bar at the tarn below Saimaluu-Tash West cirque, a 400-m shoreline shelf with 180 panels on glacially-rafted quartzite.
🇵🇪 Peru · Rock art
Ollantaytambo Fountain Terrace West — Cusco (Cusco)
Late Neolithic (4000–3000 BCE) · Bronze Age
Ollantaytambo Fountain Terrace West in Cusco, Peru is a Late Neolithic (4000–3000 BCE) rock art attributed to Bronze Age culture.
🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Hillfort
Dunadd Fort — Kilmartin Glen
Iron Age to Early Medieval · Dal Riata Scots
Dunadd Fort — Kilmartin Glen in Argyll, Scotland, United Kingdom is a Iron Age to Early Medieval hillfort attributed to Dal Riata Scots.
🇵🇰 Pakistan · Rock art
Shahbaz Garhi — Ashokan Rock Edict Outlier Quarry
Mauryan (260 BCE) Ashoka edicts · Mauryan (Ashoka)
Shahbaz Garhi — Ashokan Rock Edict Outlier Quarry in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan is a Mauryan (260 BCE) Ashoka edicts rock_art attributed to Mauryan (Ashoka).