Mwela Rock Paintings

The Mwela Rock Paintings is a mixed site consisting of one of the densest concentrations of rock art sites in Africa, which were painted in caves and overhangs on a series of rock outcrops near the city of Kasama. Over 1,000 paintings created by Later Stone Age hunter-gatherers and depicting their social practices, religious beliefs, and cultural traditions have been identified at the site. The Mwela Rock cultural landscape supports an ecosystem containing open grasslands and wetlands interspersed with rock outcrops, which inspired the prehistoric paintings and continues to hold spiritual value to present-day local communities.