Magharet El Kantara
Magharet el Kantara or Shaw's Cave (Arabic: مغارة القنطرة, arched cave) is a rock art shelter of the Gilf Kebir National Park in the New Valley Governorate, Egypt. Located on the south-western slopes of Gilf Kebir, it was discovered in 1935 by the explorers Bill Kennedy Shaw and Rupert Harding Newman.
Description
The cave is 4 m (13 ft) high and 15 m (49 ft) wide. About half a meter above the ground there are rock paintings of a herd of differently drawn cattle and a farmstead representing a rare example of cattle paintings in the Gilf Kebir that otherwise are abundant in the nearby Jebel Ouenat. These Neolithic rock paintings testify the favorable climatic conditions of life during the African humid period much different from the present one.
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Rock painted farmstead -
Rock painted cattle -
Rock painted shepherds with cattle
References
- ^ Bill Kennedy Shaw, Rock Paintings in the Libyan Desert. In: Antiquity, a quarterly review of world archaeology, ISSN 0003-598X, V. 10, 38 (1936), pp. 175–178.
- ^ Rudolph Kuper: Archaeology of the Gilf Kebir National Park Retrieved 2020/04/20.
- ^ Yves Gauthier and Giancarlo Negro, Magharat el-kantara (Shaw’s Cave) revisite : art rupstre du sud Gilf Kebir (Egypte de sud-ouest). In: Sahara : preistoria e storia del Sahara, ISSN 1120-5679, V. 9 (1997), pp. 124–133.