From a distance, the black cliffs appear featureless, scorched by a blazing desert sun. But up close, the basalt reveals engravings of giraffe, ostrich and antelope made 7,000 years ago. Ibrahim Dabale Loubak,custodian of the rock art, narrates the story told by ancient depictions of wildlife and cultural practices, near the Djibouti-Ethiopia border These masterful works, etched onto stone in northern Djibouti, are among the most important examples of rock art in the Horn of Africa, a region rich in archaeological heritage and the birthplace of humanity. Stretching three kilometres (almost two miles), some 900 panels at Abourma depict in wonderful relief prehistoric life in these parts, dramatic scenes of early man confronting wildlife, and droving cows. But these centuries-old images, rendered by flint onto igneous rock, also offer a valuable record of a bygone era -- and a land drastically reshaped by millennia of climate change. The wildlife illustrated are still … [Read more...] about Djibouti’s hidden rock art offers window to the past