This is the only website completely dedicated to the earliest Central Saharan paintings and petroglyphs, including the online database of all known Round Head and Kel Essuf figures. It is free and accessible to everyone.

Our work is useful to all academics working in the field of the rock art and of art in general, for ethnographers and anthropologists.

• This project aims to help local African academics to start the research; they may base their study on this catalogue which will also be a fundamental tool in comparing other African rock art complexes.

• The project is oriented to furthering the growing awareness of local peoples in their immensely rich cultural heritage and its conservation, and it will become the principal tool in monitoring inevitable deterioration of rock paintings or petroglyphs.

The catalogue of the Round Head sites will probably be the only source of their knowledge. The Touareg guides of the old generation spent most of their nomadic life in the mountains where they knew every painted site. The last old guides with this knowledge, passed away.

In 1980 the Touareg from the mountains moved to the oasis because of the severe drought, and they started modern sedentary life. The present young guides were already born in the oasis so that they usually know only the main sites. Thanks to this catalogue the Central Saharan cultural heritage will be made known not only to foreigners, but also to local people from distant parts of Africa.

The catalogue is open to future discoveries.

Everyone who wishes to contribute is welcome.

See the CATALOGUE