Video: Western Gilf Kebir

You Tube

Regular visitors to the blog will know of my ongoing love affair with the Gilf Kebir area, so finding a video of the place was a briefly happy moment - but I nearly had heart failure at the shots of somewhat tracing over an image from the Mestekawi-Foggini Cave (the image on the right is a screen grab from the video). Tracing over an image is an intensively invasive procedure which can very easily harm the underlying original. In fact, watching this video it is difficult to see how the small figure beneath was not harmed, and it should be a wake up call to anyone lucky enough to visit these remote and and unsecured rock art sites - don't do it!

It also turns out that the beautiful vistas of the area don't lend themselves particularly well to amateur video - the only things that really move much in the desert are the cars, so there's lots of footage of vehicles crossing the desert and driving up wadis. However, it is still nice to see the desert going by, and the video does give a sense of the sheer complexity of the images in the Mestekawi cave. Here's the accompanying blurb:

Discovered by Zarzora Expedition in 2002, the rock-art site of Mestekawi Cave, in northwest Gilf Kebir, is yet to be studied. Due to its remoteness, the site, like several other prehistoric remains, has been visited by only few hundreds of people. Most of those were tourists with general interest in rock-art. however, systematic examination requires sincere efforts, well-fitted logistics and precious time.

It also requires that the art is still there to be examined.