 So-called swimmers in the "cave of swimmers" | ||
| Wādī Ṣūra · وادي صورة | ||
| Governorate | New valley | |
|---|---|---|
| height | 598 m | |
no tourist info on Wikidata:  | ||
| location | ||
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Wadi Sura (also Wadi Sora, Bildtal, Picture Valley, Arabic:وادي صورة, Wādī Ṣūra, „Bildtal“) Is an archaeological site on the southwest corner of the Abu-Ras Plateau, the northwestern part of the Gilf Kebir Plateaus in the egyptianWestern desert. In the valley there are prehistoric rock engravings and rock paintings in several places. The most famous site is the so-called "Swimmer's Cave". It was also immortalized in the film "The English Patient", even if the film is artistically far from reality.
background
Wādī Ṣūra is actually not a real rock valley. The archaeological site is on the southwest corner of the Abu-Ras Plateau. The two most important caves, the Swimmer Cave and the Archers Cave, are located at the foot and on the northwest side of a protruding rock.
For the first time a rock engraving, a petroglyph, was made in this area in 1931 by the British surveyor Patrick Andrew Clayton (1896–1962). The rock was named Giraffefelsen after the representation of a giraffe.
The Hungarian desert researcher was able to do the giraffe rock, but also new rock engravings and tools László Almásy (1895–1951) in 1932 and in the spring of 1933. In the spring of 1933 Almásy succeeded in finding an important rock painting in ʿAin Dua in the west of the Gebel el-ʿUweināt. This discovery led him to undertake an expedition in October 1933, together with the German ethnologists Leo Frobenius (1873-1938) and Hans Rhotert (1900–1991) and the draftsman, Mrs. Pauli. The main task of this expedition was to collect the fesl images of ʿAin Dua and Karkūr Ṭalḥ in the Gebel el-ʿUweināt. The return journey took place over the Gilf Kebir plateau to take up the rock art there. Here Almásy succeeded in discovering four other caves with prehistoric rock paintings at a distance of approx. 3.5 kilometers from the earlier sites. Almásy reported:
- “From here [Gebel el-ʿUweināt] I led the expedition via Kufra to the northwest corner of the Gilf Kebir Mountains to the rock valley in which P.A. Clayton in 1931 and myself in 1932 and [in spring] 1933 found carved pictures and stone tools. Here, too, while my companions [Leo Frobenius, Hans Rhotert, Frau Pauli] copied, I went out with Sabr [the Sudanese driver Sabir Mohammed] along the cliff edge of the Gilf plateau to the east to explore. Now I recognized the stratification of the rocks from afar, where the soft sandstone rests on hard rock. Four kilometers away from our camp I drove into such a wadi and told Sabr from the start that we would find caves with paintings here again. But our new discovery exceeded all expectations. ”(P. 218)[1]
In the last few years further representations by Giancarlo Negro, Yves Gauthier and others discovered.
The rock carvings, which are around 10,000 years old, show very clearly that there was a climate here at that time that was clearly different from today's.
getting there
Visiting the caves is usually part of a desert excursion in 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 two most important caves or rock overhangs are located directly at the foot of a sandstone massif on its northwest side. Both contain rock paintings that were mainly painted in red, but also painted in yellow-green on the wall. The future of these 10,000 year old paintings is uncertain, as the sandstone ground threatens to flake off the walls.
The left cave is that "Swimmer's Cave", Rhotert called it Cave C. It is about four meters wide, three meters deep and two meters high. She carries different representations in several groups. High up you can see people lying down and stretching out their arms as if they were swimming. Whether it really is a swimmer remains an eternal mystery. These so-called swimmers gave the cave its current name. Furthermore, slim people with an almost triangular torso are shown.
About 15 meters further to the right is another, smaller cave, the Cave of the Archers (engl. Cave of the Archers) or Hunter's Cave; Rhotert called it Cave D. Here you can find representations of hunters with bows and arrows, animals, cattle and women.
800 meters north of the swimming cave is the Cave F. with depictions of people and giraffes.
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
The one that was only discovered in 2002 is located eleven kilometers to the northwest Foggini Mistikawi Cave or Den of the Beasts.
literature
- : Swimmers in the desert: in search of the Zarzura oasis. innsbruck: Haymon, 1997 (3rd edition), ISBN 978-3852182483 , P. 132 f., 218 f.
- : Libyan rock art: Results of the 11th and 12th German inner-African research expedition (Diafe) 1933/1934/1935. Darmstadt: Wittich, 1952.
- : Nouveaux documents rupestres des environs du Wâdi Sura (Gilf Kebir, see above de l’Égypte). In:Bulletin / Société d’Etudes et de Recherches Préhistoriques
, ISSN1152-2631, Vol.48 (1998), Pp. 62-79.
Web links
- Wadi Sora, the real "Cave of Swimmers". András Zboray's website, Fliegel Jezerniczky Expeditions, also contains images of the newly discovered caves.
Individual evidence
- ↑This text passage can be found Not in Almásy's book “Unknown Sahara” published in 1939, but only in the Hungarian edition “Az ismeretlen Szahara” published in 1934. The 1997 edition “Swimmer in the Desert” contains the translation of this missing chapter in the appendix.
