Rock art

On a large slap of rock above the owner's house is a big collection of ancient petroglyphs (rock art). They are exposed to the elements and can be hard to see, if the rock as been left to the mosses and algaes. The petroglyphs depicted many things, but canoe paddles, foot prints, and people are the most easy recognizable. Nobody seem to know much about them, but the best guess for their age is a couple of thousands years.

In 1984 the Belgian artist Jean Verame painted with the help of the local fire department (and 18 tonnes of paint) the rocks in various colors. They create a psychedelic piece of art, which you can marvel at from both the distance or up close. You can even climb it.
The rocks have since been repainted.
No are no entrance fee and you can just roam freely around.

With at least 2,500 rock carvings the petroglyphs site at Twyfelfontein is one of the largest concentrations of rock petroglyphs in Africa. Most of the motifs are easily recognizable animals, but there are also more spiritual engravings. It's believed that the nomad tribes who lived in the valley made them between 6,000 and 2,000 years ago. The Twyfelfontein Petroglyphs became Namibia’s first UNESCO World Heritage site in 2007.

Way before the Vikings, in the Bronze Age, Scandinavia was inhabited by hunter-gatherers. They carved their daily life into slabs of rocks. These rock carvings can be seen throughout Scandinavia (except for mainland Denmark), but the area at Alta is among the absolute best. There have been found more than 6000 individual carvings, where the main site, Jiepmaluokta, contains thousands. The wide variety of figures shows animals, fishing, hunting and shamanistic rituals. The most recent carvings were dated to around 500 BC, the earliest might be around 4200 BC or maybe even older.
The rock carvings are a UNESCO World Heritage site and is today an open-air museum with wooden viewing platforms and boardwalks. A full circuit is about 4 km.

Outside Karimabad in Hunza Valley next to the Karakoram Highway stand four boulders covered in petroglyphs. The rock carvings are locally known as "Sacred Rocks of Hunza" or Haldeikish (meaning "a place of many male ibex"). The carvings are believed to date back to the 1st millennium AD. There are thousands of carving, many of ibex and goats, but there are also inscriptions in different languages including Chinese, Tibetan, and Brahmi, written by Silk Route travellers. The site is surprisingly well-preserved even though it's only partly fenced off.

This petroglyph site is considered to be the absolute best in Saudi Arabia and a UNESCO World Heritage site. The archaeological rock art site covers a vast area with several rock outcrops covered in petroglyphs. The collection contains three phases of rock carvings: Large men and women figures from the Neolithic and iron age around 10,000 BC, medium sized animals from around 5500 BC, and inscriptions from around 3000 BC. The site is fenced off, so check the opening hours before driving out here.

At the foot of a very smooth cliff face, a couple of boulders and a slab of rock have been carved with petroglyphs and inscriptions. It's filled with images of animals and humans. The well preserved inscriptions are from the ancient Dadan Kingdom (Dadan is also called Lihyan) and were probably carved around 5th century BC. Sadly but expected, there are also some newer graffiti.

The Drakensberg Mountains are covered with San rock art sites, and although the locations of many of these are not made available to the public, there are some spectacular sites that are easy enough to visit. There are thought to be at least 35,000-40,000 paintings and works of art in these mountains, and there is a single site, Sebaayeni Cave, which contains 1146 individual paintings! The paintings found in this region are nowhere near as old as those in Botswana or Namibia, but many of them are incredibly well preserved, and the many information centres, brochures and guided walks makes the Drakensberg an ideal place to explore San culture. The two best places to learn more are probably the Didima San Rock Art Centre and Giant Castle's Main Cave Museum. But if you want to avoid the crowds, it might be an idea to try to sweet-talk one of the guides or rangers into showing you a site away a bit more off the beaten track - just don't expect the getting there to be easy!

Scandinavia is normally known for its Vikings, but long before, in the Bronze Age (about three thousands years ago), the region was home to hunting communities that carved their spiritual world and daily life into flat rocks. To this day, these mystical figures, farmers, animals, boats and patterns are still easily seen in Tanum, one of the prime areas for these Nordic rock carvings, and consitute a peek into an ancient world. Their numbers are remarkably high here and they are still half hidden in the pine forest as they probably have been for millenniums. There are four main sites in Tanum, Vitlycke (right next to the museum), Fossum, Aspebjerget, and Litsleby, all within a few minutes drive from each other.
Tanum is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

On a slab of rock 150 m above Langar village is one of Central Asia's biggest collections of ancient petroglyphs (5878 pieces in total, though we didn't count). It's mostly animals and hunters that are carved into the rockface, the oldest ones date back to the Bronze Age (about 1500 BC). Over time, the collection has become bigger, where the newest pieces are just stupid graffiti and additions to already existing pieces (mostly penises added to the figures). The petroglyphs lie totally unprotected and you actually need to walk to the slab of rock to see them, so watch your step for the rock breaks easily.