Cave of Swimmers

E246865

The Cave of Swimmers is a prehistoric rock art site in Egypt’s remote Gilf Kebir plateau, famed for its Neolithic paintings of human figures that suggest a once wetter, habitable Sahara.

All labels observed (1)

Label Occurrences
Cave of Swimmers canonical 2

How this entity was disambiguated

Statements (42)

Predicate Object
instanceOf archaeological site
cave
prehistoric rock art site
access requires desert expedition
artStyle rock art
rock painting
artTechnique painted figures
belongsTo North African rock art tradition
climateImplication indicates presence of ancient lakes or water bodies
conservationIssues risk of damage from visitors
continent Africa
country Egypt
culturalAttribution prehistoric Saharan hunter-gatherers
depicts animals
human figures
swimming humans
discoveredBy Count László de Almásy
surface form: László Almásy
discoveryYear 1933
documentation recorded in Almásy’s book The Unknown Sahara
environmentalContext now hyper-arid desert
era Holocene
estimatedAge approximately 8000 years old
hasResearchField archaeology
palaeoclimatology
rock art studies
languageOfName English
locatedIn Gilf Kebir plateau
Sahara Desert
Western Desert
locatedInProtectedArea Gilf Kebir National Park
materialUsed pigment on rock
nameOrigin named for paintings interpreted as swimmers
near Cave of Beasts
orientation rock shelter wall
popularCulture featured in the film The English Patient
featured in the novel The English Patient
protectionStatus remote and difficult to access
region New Valley Governorate
significance evidence for a formerly wetter Sahara
evidence for past habitable conditions in the Sahara
timePeriod Neolithic
tourism specialized desert tourism destination

How these facts were elicited

Referenced by (2)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Count László de Almásy exploresRegion Cave of Swimmers
Gilf Kebir plateau hasPart Cave of Swimmers