Galleries of the Past: Rock Art Sites

At its core, art is the language of emotion, sentimental states, emotional situations, and personal mood and some art is defined as a beautiful and enjoyable expression stemming from human emotion. Art is almost becoming a fundamental human need, reflected in the sheer volume and diversity of art forms across all aspects of life today. Its importance is evident in the numerous rock art sites scattered throughout the world, dating back to various periods. These sites are inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List. This article will highlight some of these sites, discussing their value, artistic beauty, and their expression of the lives of ancient people and the shape of a bygone era.

The first of these locations is the Gobustan Rock Art Cultural Landscape in Azerbaijan. This site covers three areas of a plateau of rocky boulders which covers an area of 2 square miles and is part of the larger protected Gobustan Reservation. More than 6,000 rock engravings in this site's outstanding collection span over 40,000 years. This site also features settlements, burials, and inhabited caves, all of which reflect intensive human activity.

Figure 1. Petroglyphs of Gobustan. Callens, W. (2008) via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 1.0.

Gobustan has a significant value in terms of the quality and the diversity of the rock art engravings. The engravings provide an image of lifestyles in prehistoric times by presenting scenes that depict hunting, fauna, and flora. These rock engravings are testimony to a way of life that has disappeared in the way they represent activities related to hunting and fishing at a time when the climate and vegetation of the region were warmer and wetter than the present day.

The second site is in southwest China, the Zuojiang Huashan Rock Art Cultural Landscape. This landscape has 38 locations displaying the life and ritual customs of the Luoyue people, dated from the 5th century BCE until the 2nd century CE. In a natural landscape of rivers and plateaus, they depict ceremonies which have been explained as portraying the drum culture once common across southern China. These sites are all that remains of that culture today.

Figure 2. "Rock painting hua mountain." Rolfmueller (2010) via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

The Zuojiang Huashan Rock Art landscape, with its unique combination of mountains, rivers and rock art. The rock art vividly conveys the energetic spiritual and social life of the Luoyue people. The scenes of Zuojiang Huashan depicting drums and related features are symbolic records associated directly with the bronze drum culture. The location and setting of the rock art are authentic; generally, they are located high up on the cliffs. Revered by the local inhabitants, these sites are nevertheless subject to weathering over time. All these sites are protected at the provincial level, except for one, which is protected at the national level in accordance with the National Law on the Protection of Cultural Relics. Soon, the remaining 37 sites will also receive national-level protection. In general, the management of the property is under the responsibility of Chongzuo Management Centre in Chongzuo City.

Finally, sites in the middle of the desert include two components: Umm Sinman mountain at Jubbah and the Al-Manjor and Raat mountains at Shuwaymis. As for Umm Sinman Mountain, a lake was once situated at the foot of the mountain, but it doesn’t exist anymore. The lake used to be a source of fresh water in the Great Narfoud Desert for people and animals. The ancestors of today’s Arabs have left their traces throughout numerous petroglyphs and inscriptions. As for the Al-Manjor and Raat mountains, they are the rocky escarpment of a valley now covered in sand. They show plentiful portrayals of human and animal figures covering 10,000 years of history.

Figure 3. Inscriptions of camels. Saudi Heritage Commission (2008) via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

The serial property of the rock art in the Hail region is comprised of two components; together these components contain the largest and richest rock art complexes in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The features of the landscapes comprise a number of petroglyphs, inscriptions, archaeological factors and the environmental setting. Simple stone hammers have engraved these images against a backdrop of gradual environmental deterioration. From a society perspective these sites provide an exceptional testimony response to past environmental obstacles. In addition, the petroglyphs at Shuwaymis afford an exceptional testimony of a society that is long gone, leaving behind a remarkable detailed record of its existence.

These are a few of the rock art sites that are listed in the UNESCO World Heritage List, demonstrating that art is a common aspect in the life of humankind despite the differences of the times, places and beliefs.

Abdullah Al-Ghannam (عبدالله محمد الغنا م) is currently a student on the MA Museum Studies programme at the University of Leicester.

References

• UNESCO World Heritage Centre (n.d.) Gobustan Rock Art Cultural

  Landscape. Available at: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1076

  (Accessed: 16 March 2026).

• UNESCO World Heritage Centre (n.d.) Zuojiang Huashan Rock Art

  Cultural Landscape. Available at: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1508

  (Accessed: 16 March 2026).

• UNESCO World Heritage Centre (n.d.) Rock Art in the Hail Region of

  Saudi Arabia. Available at: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1472

  (Accessed: 17 March 2026).