 The cave is on a small hill | ||
| Foggini Mistikāwī Cave Den of the Beasts | ||
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The Foggini Mistikawi Cave (also Foggini-Mestekawi / Mestikawi / Mistikawi / Mestecawi / Mesticawi cave, Grotta Foggini, Arabic:كهف المستكاوي, Kahf al-Mistikāwī) or Den of the Beasts (engl. Cave of the Beasts) is an archaeological site only discovered in 2002 on the southwest corner of the Abu-Ras Plateau, the northwestern part of the Gilf Kebir Plateaus in the egyptianWestern desert. It is located a few kilometers northwest of the so-called "Swimmers' den“But it surpasses them in size and in the quality and quantity of the rock carvings. It does not yet have an official name.
background
Every year the Italian Massimo Foggini organized excursions to the Western desert or the western part of the Libyan desert. They were mostly led by Colonel Aḥmad el-Mistikāwī (Arabic:أحمد المستكاوي). His son Jacopo accompanied his father Massimo in 2002.
At around 4:30 pm on May 11, 2002, they stopped at the foot of a large sand dune. Jacopo insisted on going up the dune to enjoy the view. A little later you could hear his shouts of "thousands, thousands". He had made one of the most spectacular discoveries in Western Desert archeology. The official find time is 4:50 p.m.
The discovery was celebrated with a bottle of champagne.
The cave has been examined by scientists from the Heinrich Barth Institute in Cologne since 2009.
This cave is now an absolute must for any excursion in the Gilf Kebir National Park.
getting there
Visiting the cave is usually part of a desert excursion to the Gilf Kebir National Park. An all-terrain four-wheel drive vehicle is required to travel through the desert.
You can either reach the wadi directly from Gebel el-ʿUweināt or by going around the Gilf Kebir plateau on its south side.
A permit from the Egyptian military is required to drive into the national park. During the trip you will be accompanied by armed police officers and a military officer. For trips to the Gilf Kebir there is a separate safari department in Mū,, which also provides the necessary police escort and their vehicles. The mandatory service is of course chargeable.
Tourist Attractions
The approximately 7 meter high cave is located above a 17 meter high sand dune. You cannot avoid having to climb it yourself.
But the effort is rewarded: there are hundreds of rock paintings and engravings on the walls, which were probably created over a period of a thousand years. The representations are dominated by around 300 hands in negative painting.
Numerous people, hunters and even swimmers are visible. There are also numerous wild animals such as giraffes, gazelles and ostriches, but no domesticated animals. A specialty are several headless animals that cannot be classified zoologically. Human-animal hybrid beings are also shown.
kitchen
You can rest outside the cave. Food and drinks must be brought along. Rubbish must be taken with you and must not be left lying around.
accommodation
Tents must be carried for overnight stays at some distance.
trips
It is located eleven kilometers to the southeast Wadi Sura with the famous cave of swimmers.
literature
- Egypt: In the cave of the beasts. In:Spectrum of science; Special 2/2011: Under the spell of the desert, 2011, pp. 6-13.
- : Wadi Sura: the Cave of Beasts; a rock art site in the Gilf Kebir (SW Egypt). Cologne: Heinrich Barth Institute, 2013, Africa Praehistorica; 26, ISBN 978-3-927688-40-7 .
Web links
- Grotta Foggini. The site of the cave from its discoverers Jacopo and Massimo Foggini.
