The Drakensberg is fortunate because it has one of the most extensive and perhaps most exceptional repositories of rock art worldwide. Some 30000 examples of Drakensberg San Rock Art exist in the Maloti-Drakensberg World Heritage Site.

The Drakensberg is thus home to one of the largest art galleries in the world, with around 600 painted sites and over 35 000 individual images. One can look at paintings of eland or rhebok, turn around and look out at these very animals!

There are some 20,000 individual rock paintings that have been recorded at 500 different caves and over-hanging cliff sites between the Drakensberg Royal Natal National Park and Bushman’s Nek.

"The rock art of the Maloti-Drakensberg Park is the largest and most concentrated group of rock paintings in Africa south of the Sahara and is outstanding both in quality and diversity of subject." A selection of rock art sites in the Drakensberg are indicated on the interactive map below.

One of the Drakensberg's greatest treasures is its cultural heritage. Some 20 000 individual rock paintings have been recorded at 500 different cave and overhang sites between Royal Natal National Park and Bushman's Neck. San (Bushman) rock art in uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park.

The Drakensberg mountains in particular are known for their wealth of rock paintings, often showing detailed and brightly coloured images of people, animals and part-human, part-animal figures known as ‘therianthropes’, with this site a prime example.

In the well-known painting from Game Pass Shelter at Drakensberg, commonly referred to as the 'Rosetta Stone' of South African rock art, it was here that archaeologists first uncovered a vital key to understanding the symbolism of the San Bushman rock art paintings.

There are some 20,000 individual rock paintings that have been recorded at 500 different caves and over-hanging cliff sites between the Drakensberg Royal Natal National Park and Bushman’s Nek.

Nov 13, 2018 · san rock art. The San were masters of artistic expression on rock faces. Art critics have revered their ability to express human animation, their religious and day-to-day activities, and nature through art. The Drakensberg Mountains have the largest concentration of this art. Over 30,000 examples exist in rock caves and overhangs in this region.

Rock art in the Central & Northern Drakensberg is more shamanistic, including mainly hallucinatory motifs, e.g. “ropes to God”, magnificent dream images such as the “Moon Goddess” and the “Sorcerer” of Sorcerer’s Rock. In the Didima valley alone, researchers discovered 12 depictions of bee swarms.