Art Fun Cheap

Archaeologists, egyptologists and anthropologists as well as lovers of the Sahara’s pre-historic art must now have their eyes set on Libya, as full access to its unique prehistoric art and primeval past is only a few hours away from Europe’s capitals. Dazzling and vivid mages of its early pastoralists, tribal shamans and early artists can be grasped directly off the rocks of the Sahara. Breathtaking depictions that not only withstood time but also have brought time to a stand-still; to a degree where these preserved treasures are believed by the Tuareg to be lessons from their ancestors and as such are true history of the Great Sahara Desert.

Although much of the Sahara’s prehistoric art was attributed to Lhote’s travels in late 1950s, the engravings of North Africa were first made know to Europeans by a group of French Army officers travelling in southern Oran (in Algeria) in 1847. When the explorer Heinrich Barth crossed the Sahara from Tripoli to Timbuktu, in 1850, he found similar engravings of elephants, lions, antelopes, bovids, ostriches, gazelles and humans in the Fezzan area. In 1954 an Italian expedition (which included Paolo Grraziose, Vergara-Caffarelli and Dr Paradisi) discovered a large collection of animal engravings and female figures in rock shelters in Wadi el Kel, about 300 miles south of Tripoli. Apparently, the same engravings were reported in 1874 by the explorer Rohlfs. In some of the animal carvings, the horns of the oxen join together to form a solar disk: the emblem of the Libyan Sun-Goddess. After the first war the geological prophet who foretold the Sahara’s riches of natural oil, Conrad Kilian, discovered frescoes of a giraffe hunt in 1928. A few years later, chariots drawn by horses were also discovered. Then came Lieutenant Brenans the governor of Tassili who discovered the Tassili frescoes in 1938. According to some sources, Henri Lhote knew Brenans well and after his death carried on the work he had started, and he began to catalogue the gallery between the years 1956 and 1957.

Libya’s Tripoli’s Jamahiriya Museum houses a wonderful collection of prehistoric artifacts and treasures from the Sahara and there is no doubt that the museum deserves a visit. But serious explorers of ancient civilizations will benefit greatly from the museums of the Sahara herself – a place well-known to the Berber Nasamons of ancient Libya, from whom Herodotus appears to have had hurriedly derived his descriptions of this enigmatic interior of Libya. The Sahara is the home of the world’s largest collection of prehistoric cave art: some 100,000 sites; each is a unique gallery of prehistoric drawings, paintings and engravings, telling different stories about life in the past. One of the prehistoric paintings discovered by Henri Lhote, that of a human figure, about 18 feet tall, holds the record of being the largest prehistoric painting in the world.

To read more about these treasures please visit our virtual prehistoric art galleries at www.temehu.com.

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About the Author:
Website master and content creator & editor of the Libyan tour operator Temehu Tourism Services. The author has written a number of popular articles relating to ancient Libyan history, the Berber Temehu tribes of ancient Egypt and Libya, Sahara prehistoric art, Libyan museums, Libyan food, Libya travel guides, wildlife in the great Sahara desert, and many more specialist articles and short studies about Libyan archaeology, tourism, life and culture. For more information about the author’s work and about Libya, Libya travel information, and Libyan tourism please visit www.temehu.com .
 
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