Laas Geel Prehistoric Site

A little over an hour from Hargeisa, turn off National Highway 1 to visit Somaliland's greatest archeological site, Laas Geel	Interesting rocks along the 5 km dirt road leading to the rock art site at Laas Geel	Our guide told us this pile of rocks was the remains of an ancient tomb	Nomadic herders live in simple shelters in the countryside
The frame of a traditional Somali hut awaiting its patchwork quilt cover	Detail of the frame of a traditional Somali hut	Simple staple food of the Somali nomads	Somali woman in front of her small hut
Somali woman, shy but friendly	Frame of a traditional Somali hut awaiting its cover	Our SPUs keep an eye on things as we visit the nomads	Somali nomad dwellings along the road to Laas Geel
Karen with one of the SPUs	Somali girl near Laas Geel	Somali girl in blue	Somali girl and her brother sporting a red New York shirt
Nomad camp along the track to Laas Geel, Somaliland	Nomadic neighbors	Another hut of Somali nomads near Laas Geel	Laas Geel police check point...closed Friday
No one home at the Laas Geel police checkpoint	Distinctive koppie at Laas Geel, but not the site of the prehistoric rock paintings	Stark beauty surrounds the Laas Geel site, Somaliland	Rocky massif of Laas Geel, the site of caves sheltering prehistoric rock art estimated to be at least 5000 years old
Another group of foreign visitors gives scale to the size of the rocky hill at Laas Geel	Laas Geel's art has been known to locals for centuries, but only in 2002 did the site come to the attention of archeaologists	Laas Geel is located at N9 46.7/E44 26.7 at an elevation of 3500 ft	Laas Geel lies at the confluence of two wadis
Crossing the wadi to reach the Laas Geel visitor center	Information posters at the Laas Geel visitor center	Information poster of the site of Laas Geel and its 20 cave-like shelters	Description of Shelter 1 at Laas Geel
Shelter 1 is decorated with 350 individual paintings	Description of the figures painted at Laas Geel, human and animal	Archeological test pits in Shelter 7 at Laas Geel	Other prehistoric rock art sites in Somaliland
Laas Geel is sometimes also written as Las Gaal	Laas Geel, Somaliland	Climbing the path leading up to the caves of Laas Geel	A hardy tree taking root in the rock
Shelter One of Laas Geel	Most of the paintings at Laas Geel represent cattle	Someday Laas Geel will surely be a World Heritage Site	The local guide at Laas Geel provided some interpretation
Animal and human figures in Shelter 1, Laas Geel	Hunter with a bow and arrow	Laas Geel rock art	Karen with the Somali guides, Laas Geel
Human and animal figures, Laas Geel	Some of the paintings have rather vivid colors	Goat? Dog?	The majority of the paintings at Laas Geel depict cattle
The rock shelter, not quite a cave, has some rather interesting indentations, perhaps man-made?	Laas Geel prehistoric rock art, Somaliland	Man and beast, Laas Geel	Laas Geel dates to the Neolithic era
Rock art, Laas Geel	It is believed that Laas Geel had a better climate in prehistoric times to support herds of cattle	View from Laas Geel across the the neighboring koppie	Millennia ago, when the paintings were created, this was probably a flowing river rather than a mostly dry wadi
Rather than being full-fledged caves, Laas Geel is more just indentations that provide shelter	View looking towards the confluence of the wadis that gave Laas Geel its name, "where the camels are watered"	Were the necks of the prehistoric Somalis really decorated with colorful rings?	One of the 20 or so rock shelters at Laas Geel
Most of the best preserved paintings are on the roofs of the caves/shelters	Man and cow, Laas Geel	Cave-like rock shelter, Laas Geel, Somaliland	Niches carved out of the stone, Laas Geel
Rock art, Laas Geel	Painted cows, Laas Geel	The local site guide taking a break as we explore Laas Geel	Laas Geel neolithic rock art site, Somaliland
Even here, our SPUs accompany us	View through the opening of one of the deeper caves at Laas Geel	Access to some of the shelters requires a little scrambling	Even without the world class archeological site, Laas Geel is a place of scenic beauty
A small lizard, Laas Geel	Cactus, Laas Geel	Climbing among the rocks of Laas Geel	Panoramic view of Laas Geel and the wadis
This shelter took a bit of a scramble to reach	Giraffe, probably long since vanished from Somaliland	Laas Geel, Somaliland	One of our security escorts
Laas Geel	Thorny bush, Laas Geel	Cave opening, Laas Geel	Will, our host, with Karen and Trygve
That says profile photo all over it	Looking down from the top of Laas Geel	Panoramic view of Laas Geel, Somaliland	Baboon poo, Laas Geel
Will and the SPUs	Will and an SPU	SPU at Laas Geel	Laas Geel has around 20 painted caves and shelters
Laas Geel makes Somaliland a worth goal for the well traveled individual	Another of the 20 or so rock shelters at Laas Geel	Rock art painting of a decorated cow, Laas Geel	Decorated cow, Laas Gel
Cattle mating, Laas Geel	A pair of goats, Laas Geel	Painted cattle, Laas Geel	Painted cattle, Laas Geel
A striking scene, Laas Geel	Prominent rock, Laas Geel	Scenic Laas Geel	Scenic Laas Geel
Visitors to the ancient rock art site of Laas Geel, Somaliland	Neolithic rock art, Laas Geel, Somaliland	Laas Geel rock art	Prehistoric rock art, Laas Geel, Somaliland
Human figure, Laas Geel	Cattle, the most important thing to a pastoralist, even in Africa today	Rock art, Laas Geel, Somaliland	The paintings at Laas Geel are at least 5000 years old, perhaps as old as 11,000 years
Was this the neolithic equivalent of today's graffiti?	We were told that this was the temporary tomb of a soldier killed at Laas Geel during the Somali civil war	Rock shelter, Laas Geel	View of the stark landscape surrounding Laas Geel
Scenic Laas Geel	I found that pinnacle striking	Amazingly, the guide caught this baby gazelle by hand	Baby gazelle that had been hiding a bush at Laas Geel
Very unhappy baby gazelle	Run!	Laas Geel	Pile of rocks at the base of Laas Geel, probably an ancient tomb
Laas Geel, well worth a visit	Wadi crossing by the visitor center, Laas Geel	Hut of the police checkpoint at Laas Geel	Rather than backtrack to National Highway 1, we set out across a rough track to meet the highway further north
Land Cruisers are almost a requirement in Somaliland	Camel grazing near Laas Geel, Somaliland	You'd think I've seen enough camels living in the Middle East	Somaliland Camels
I'm no expert of camel beauty, but I found the camels in Somaliland to look very robust and healthy	Somaliland Camel	Our SPUs were very helpful	SPU posing with a camel near Laas Geel, Somaliland
Wildlife near Laas Geel ... looks like gerenuk (Litocranius walleri)	While not overly abundant, wildlife is present in Somaliland	Double termite mound near Laas Geel	...make that a triple...