The Kondoa rock art sites occupy the eastern slopes of the Maasai escarpment in central Tanzania, and were inscribed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 2006. Several hundred decorated rock shelters have been recorded across the area.
The paintings span an extraordinary depth of time. The oldest layers, in red pigment, depict wild animals and elongated human figures and are attributed to hunter-gatherer communities; later layers, in white, are associated with agro-pastoralist groups and continue into the recent past. Some shelters carry images from several distinct periods overlaid on one another.
A number of sites remain in active ritual use by local communities, which is part of why UNESCO cited the area’s living cultural tradition alongside its archaeological value. Visits are arranged through the Department of Antiquities office in Kolo.