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Tsodilo

Botswana
Date of Inscription: 2001
Criteria: (i)(iii)(vi)
Core zone: 4800 ha
Buffer zone: 70400 ha
The Ngamiland District, north-west Botswana
S18 45 00 E21 44 00
Ref: 1021

Brief Description

With one of the highest concentrations of rock art in the world, Tsodilo has been called the 'Louvre of the Desert'. Over 4,500 paintings are preserved in an area of only 10 km2 of the Kalahari Desert. The archaeological record of the area gives a chronological account of human activities and environmental changes over at least 100,000 years. Local communities in this hostile environment respect Tsodilo as a place of worship frequented by ancestral spirits.

Justification for Inscription

Criterion i: For many thousands of years the rocky outcrops of Tsodilo in the harsh landscape of the Kalahari Desert have been visited and settled by humans, who have left rich traces of their presence in the form of outstanding rock art.

Criterion iii: Tsodilo is a site that has witnessed visits and settlement by successive human communities for many millennia.

Criterion vi: The Tsodilo outcrops have immense symbolic and religious significance for the human communities who continue to survive in this hostile environment.

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