World Heritage Identification Number: 1021
World Heritage since: 2001
Category: Cultural Heritage
Transboundary Heritage: No
Endangered Heritage: No
Country: 🇧🇼 Botswana
Continent: Africa
UNESCO World Region: Africa
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Exploring the Cultural and Natural Significance of Tsodilo: A UNESCO World Heritage Site
The Tsodilo Hills, located in the Kalahari Desert of Botswana, Southern Africa, stand as a testament to the rich cultural history and natural beauty of this region. Inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site (WHS) in 2001, Tsodilo is renowned for its extensive collection of rock art, earning it the nickname, "the Louvre of the Desert." This article aims to delve into the various aspects that make Tsodilo a unique and significant site.
More to come…UNESCO Description of the World Heritage Site
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.
UNESCO Justification of the World Heritage Site
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.
Encyclopedia Record: Tsodilo
The Tsodilo Hills are a UNESCO World Heritage Site (WHS), consisting of rock art, rock shelters, depressions, and caves in Botswana, Southern Africa.Additional Site Details
Area: 4,800 hectares
(iii) — Unique or exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition
(vi) — Directly associated with events or living traditions
Coordinates: -18.75 , 21.73333333
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© cj Huo, CC BY-SA 1.0 Resized from original. (This derivative is under the same CC BY-SA license.)
