Wildebeest Kuil Rock Art Center, Kimberley
At the Wildebeest Kuil Rock Art Centre in the Northern Cape, is an amazing collection of Khoisan rock engravings, still situated in their original setting. These engravings, estimated to be between 200 and 2000 years old, are thought to stem from trance induced religious visions of the medicine men or shaman of the San peoples. They used art as a tangible way of sharing these visions with their people as a source of inspiration.
A greater emphasis on large mammals such as elephant, rhino and hippo, in addition to eland, and an often reduced concern with depicting the human form set the engravings apart from the paintings of the sub-continent.
Your gate-way to Wildebeest Kuil’s rock art is a visitors’ centre where displays and a 25-minute film to introduce you to the site. Community-based guides are trained to take you over the open-air site or choose to go on an audio tour of the site and you will enjoy equally fascinating commentary at each of 10 marked “stations”.
On your return, the N//aoh Djao shop at the Centre is the premier outlet for art and craftwork made by the !Xun and Khwe San community, the owners of the surrounding farms, as well as rock art books. Refreshments are available.
Directions: Take the Barkly West road out of Kimberley for approximately 16km – just after the turn to Homevale on your right, the Wildebeest Kuil Rock Art Centre is immediately on your left.
Tel: +27 (0)53 833 7069: +27 (0)82 222 4777: GPS 28°40’1″S 24°39’3″E
| More info on the quaint town of Kimberley | More info on the Diamond Fields area |
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