The Tassilin-Ajer mountain range is located in the Sahara in south-eastern Algeria. It is home to the largest of the 3,000 rock art monuments found in the desert. What makes this area on the mountain range unique are the numerous caves and arched vaults. They were formed naturally from sandstone exposed to winds and precipitation. The beds of dried rivers, the wadis, cut through the entire park, whose name means "Plateau of Rivers".
Amazing rock paintings found in 1909 are dated by scientists to 6000-2000 BC. The earliest depictions of animals are very realistic - elephants, crocodiles, giraffes, hippos, ostriches, buffalo. Later drawings differ stylistically, on them one can see "ancient Bushmen" - people in masks with weapons. Drawings of the next period - III-I thousand years B.C. represent domestic scenes and domestic animals - goats, sheep, dogs, horses, women in long skirts, men in wide cloaks. These images belong to the work of tribes of hunters and herders, they are made schematically, but with multicoloured paints.
On the drawings of the II millennium BC one can see completely different characters - tall, light-skinned warriors, horse-drawn carts. The most recent images date from 200-700 AD, they are also called the "period of the camel", when, due to climate change, these animals took the place of horses in the household. There are hundreds of thousands of rock paintings in the reserve.
The Tassilin-Adjer Plateau has been the site of bones, scrapers, stone knives, arrowheads and spearheads made of different materials and other tools of ancient people.
Since 1972, Tassilin-Adjer has been included in the Algerian National Reserve and on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
