Cave of Archers is a rock art shelter of the

Gilf Kebir National Park Gilf Kebir National Park (GKNP) ( ar, ‏محمية الجلف الكبير) is a national park located in the remote and hyper-arid New Valley Governorate, Egypt. Established in 2007, it has a surface area of 48533 km2, equal to about 5% of ...

in the

New Valley Governorate New Valley Governorate or El Wadi El Gedid Governorate ( ar, محافظة الوادي الجديد , ) is one of the governorates of Egypt. It is in the southwestern part of the country, in the south of Egypt Western Desert (part of the Saha ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

. It is located on the south-eastern slopes of

Gilf Kebir Gilf Kebir () (var. Gilf al-Kebir, Jilf al Kabir, Gilf Kebir Plateau) is a plateau in the New Valley Governorate of the remote southwest corner of Egypt, and southeast Libya. Its name translates as "the Great Barrier". This sandstone plateau, ro ...

, 40 m to the south of the

Cave of Swimmers The Cave of Swimmers is a cave with ancient rock art in the mountainous Gilf Kebir plateau of the Libyan Desert section of the Sahara. It is located in the New Valley Governorate of southwest Egypt, near the border with Libya. History The ...

Description

The south-west oriented entrance of the cave is 10 m wide and 5 m tall and opens into a large cupuliform formation modeled in the sandstone. The rock paintings of the cave feature a few panels of persons with bows and arrows as well as a herd of bovines. The paintings are dated between 6300 BP and 5500 BP during the

African humid period The African humid period (AHP) (also known by other names) is a climate period in Africa during the late Pleistocene and Holocene geologic epochs, when northern Africa was wetter than today. The covering of much of the Sahara desert by grasses, ...

, much different from the present hyper-arid one. Due to bedrock deterioration the sandstone is heavily weathered or fragmented and only a few painted sandstone blocks remain.Restoring rock art in Egypt’s great Gilf Kebir
Retrieved 2020/04/20.

References

{{Saharan rock art Saharan rock art New Valley Governorate Caves of Egypt Archaeological sites in Egypt