Tsodilo, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Botswana, is known for its cave paintings and spiritual significance to the San people. The site consists of four hills, each personified and named, with Female Hill being the most famous for its rock paintings. The paintings depict a range of shapes and figures, including animals the San may never have seen. Visitors report feeling a sense of spirituality or uneasiness. The San believe Female Hill is where gods rest and Male Hill is where the First Spirit prayed when creating the world.
Tsodilo is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the country of Botswana near the Kalahari Desert. It is known for its high concentration of cave paintings. Tsodilo is also incredibly important to the San people of the region, to whom it holds great spiritual significance.
Tsodilo is made up of four distinct hills, rapidly protruding from the land at a height of about 1,300 meters. The landscape beyond the hills is quite gradual, with smaller hills occasionally rising. The land is covered with dry bushes, and is quite desolate.
Each of the four hills of Tsodilo is personified and named after that personification. The tallest hill, to the south, is called Male Hill. Close to it is the Women’s Hill, which is shorter than the Men’s Hill at about 1,000 feet (300 m), but covers a much larger area. A shorter hill, at about 130 feet (40 m) stands near Female Hill and is known as Child Hill. Fourth Hill is not so clearly named, but she is said to have been Male Hill’s original wife, before he left her for Female Hill.
Female Hill is the site of most of the rock paintings for which Tsodilo is internationally famous, and this is where most visitors travel first. Tsodilo’s paintings offer a sweeping look back into human history and the area has been inhabited for approximately 30,000 years, making it one of the oldest inhabited areas on Earth.
The paintings cover a wide range of shapes and figures, with a few surprises for visitors. Probably the most iconic of Tsodilo’s paintings is an image of a zebra painted on a rock outcrop. This painting has been adopted as the logo for the Botswana Department of Museums and Monuments and is the image most often seen associated with Tsodilo. Other paintings include human figures, mostly of Sans in various ritualistic poses. Some of the most striking paintings for visitors are of animals the San probably would never have seen, such as whales and even some penguins. These images suggest that the San have had contact with groups extremely distant from their homeland.
Many people report a very strange feeling when visiting Tsodilo. Some describe the sensation as one of the spirits that are all around, while others describe it as simply an uneasiness. Still others find the sensation pleasant and feel as if the air is charged with a deeply ingrained spirituality. The Afrikaner Sir Laurens van der Post describes in his writings a time when he and his companions hunted game meat in the area, even though their guide warned against it. Soon after they found that their electronic equipment was all broken and they were attacked by bees several times. Eventually they wrote an apology to Tsodilo’s spirits, at which time he says the anomalies have ceased.
The San believe that the Feminine Hill is where many of the gods rest and hold court, which makes it similar to the Greek conception of Mount Olympus. They believe Male Hill is where the First Spirit prayed when he finished creating the world. There is an indentation on Male Hill which is presumably the indentation left by the First Spirit’s knees as he knelt in prayer.
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