Site type guide
Rock Art
Rock Art sites reveal how different traditions shape sacred space through architecture, landscape, ritual, and memory.
41 rock art sacred sites. Use the country and tradition filters to narrow in.
Atlas summary
Rock Art sacred sites overview
Rock Art sacred sites span countries, traditions, pilgrimage routes, and sacred landscapes represented in the Pilgrim Map atlas.
Use this guide to compare major country clusters, represented traditions, UNESCO-tagged places, and the map distribution before opening individual site pages.
| Coverage | 41 rock art sacred sites across the current atlas. |
|---|---|
| Major countries | |
| Traditions |
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41
Showing 1-41 of 41 sites in this site-type guide
Achnabreck Rock Art Sites
Lochgilphead, Argyll and Bute, United Kingdom
On a series of natural rock outcrops in a forest above Kilmartin Glen, the most extensive prehistoric carvings in Scotland lie open to the sky....
Astuvansalmi Rock Paintings
Mikkeli (Ristiina), Mikkeli / Ristiina – South Savo, Finland
On a granite cliff above Lake Yövesi in the Saimaa lake district, Stone Age hunter-gatherers painted some eighty red-ochre figures — moose, boats, hands, human forms —...
Ausevika Rock Carvings
Floro, Vestland, Norway
On a hillside above Hoydalsfjorden in western Norway, more than three hundred figures carved into slate tell the story of a Stone Age world....
Ballygowan Rock Art
Kilmartin, Argyll and Bute, United Kingdom
On a natural rock outcrop above Kilmartin Glen, more than seventy cup and ring marks dimple a surface that has not changed in five thousand years....
Baluachraig Cup and Ring Marks
Kilmartin, Argyll and Bute, United Kingdom
On exposed rock outcrops in Kilmartin Glen, Neolithic hands pecked cup-shaped hollows and concentric rings into the stone some five thousand years ago....
Bølareinen
Steinkjer, Trøndelag, Norway
On a vertical rock face beside the Bøla River in central Norway, a reindeer stands in stone as it has for more than five millennia....
Burrungkuy (Nourlangie)
Jabiru / Burrungkuy region, Northern Territory, Jabiru / Burrungkuy region, Northern Territory, Australia
Burrungkuy (Nourlangie) rises from the Kakadu floodplain as a rock art complex occupied for more than 6,000 years, its Anbangbang gallery holding an x-ray-style painting...
Carnarvon Gorge Art Gallery
Carnarvon Gorge, Queensland, Carnarvon Gorge, Queensland, Australia
Deep in a sandstone gorge in central Queensland, a sheltered rock wall carries roughly 2,000 stencils, engravings and paintings built up over thousands of years....
Cave of La Vieja, Alpera
Alpera, Alpera, Albacete, Castile-La Mancha, Spain
Cueva de la Vieja is a UNESCO World Heritage rock art shelter on the slopes of Cerro del Bosque in Albacete, Spain, preserving more than a hundred painted figures spanning...
Cave of Los Letreros
Vélez-Blanco, Vélez-Blanco, Almería, Andalusia, Spain
High on a cliff above Vélez-Blanco, Cueva de los Letreros holds around 174 red-ochre figures painted by Neolithic and Chalcolithic communities — among them the Indalo, a...
Chongoni
Chipasi, Dedza, Malawi
In the granite hills of Malawi's Dedza District, 127 painted rock shelters hold one of central Africa's richest concentrations of rock art....
Cova dels Cavalls, Valltorta
Tírig, Tírig, Castellón, Valencian Community, Spain
Cova dels Cavalls holds one of the finest surviving examples of Spanish Levantine rock art: a hunting scene in which nine deer are driven by beaters toward four archers,...
Ekain Cave
Deba, Zestoa, Gipuzkoa, Basque Country, Spain
Deep in a Basque limestone hill, Magdalenian hunters created one of the world's great concentrations of Palaeolithic cave art....
Ha Baroana
Ha Matela, Maseru District, Lesotho
On a sandstone overhang above the Liphiring River, east of Maseru, Ha Baroana holds polychrome paintings made by San (Bushmen) hunter-gatherers....
Haukkavuori Rock Painting
Mäntyharju, Ruokolahti / Rautjärvi area – South Karelia, Finland
Three clusters of red ochre painting line a steep rock wall on Lake Sarkavesi, reachable only by canoe....
Juusjärvi Rock Painting
Kirkkonummi, Kirkkonummi – Uusimaa, Finland
On a sheer lakeside cliff seven kilometers north of Kirkkonummi, red ochre figures painted during the Bronze Age still hold their ground: paired human forms with raised...
Kapasaari Rock Painting
Kouvola, Mäntyharju – South Savo, Finland
On the single steep cliff of a small, uninhabited island in Lake Vuohijärvi, faded red figures include a human form with ambiguous horn- or ear-like marks above its head...
Kilmichael Glassary Cup and Ring Marks
Lochgilphead, Argyll and Bute, United Kingdom
On a sloping rock outcrop beside a village school in Argyll, over one hundred and fifty carvings wait in the stone....
Kolmiköytisienvuori Rock Painting
Ruokolahti, Ruokolahti – South Karelia, Finland
On a granite face above Lake Saimaa's eastern shore, red ochre figures with raised arms and a serpent-bodied form have marked the water since the Stone Age....
Ku-ring-gai Chase Aboriginal Heritage Walk
Sydney / Ku-ring-gai Chase, New South Wales, Sydney / Ku-ring-gai Chase, New South Wales, Australia
The Aboriginal Heritage Walk in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park threads past rock engravings, hand stencils, and middens left by the Garigal and Darramurragal peoples...
Leirfall rock carvings
Stjordal, Trøndelag, Norway
On a south-facing rock outcrop in central Norway, between nine hundred and twelve hundred figures carved over more than a millennium preserve the ritual life of Bronze Age...
Møllerstufossen Rock Carvings
Dokka, Rogaland, Norway
Beside the roar of Møllerstufossen waterfall on the Etna river, Mesolithic hunter-gatherers carved elk into exposed rock some eight thousand years ago....
Murujuga Cultural Landscape
Dampier / Karratha, Western Australia, Dampier / Karratha, Western Australia, Australia
Murujuga's red rock holds an estimated one to two million petroglyphs made over 40,000 to 50,000 years by the ancestors of the Ngarluma, Yaburara, Mardudhunera,...
N'Dhala Gorge Nature Park
Ross River / Alice Springs region, Northern Territory, Ross River / Alice Springs region, Northern Territory, Australia
N'Dhala Gorge cuts through red sandstone 90km east of Alice Springs, its walls carrying roughly 6,000 engravings made by Eastern Arrernte ancestors across two broad phases...
Nanguluwurr Art Site
Jabiru / Burrungkuy region, Northern Territory, Jabiru / Burrungkuy region, Northern Territory, Australia
Nanguluwurr sits in a quiet rock shelter on the northern flank of Burrungkuy, along a route Bininj/Mungguy people have walked for millennia....
Napwerte / Ewaninga Rock Carvings Conservation Reserve
Hale / Alice Springs region, Northern Territory, Hale / Alice Springs region, Northern Territory, Australia
South of Alice Springs, a shallow claypan is bordered by low sandstone outcrops bearing one of the densest concentrations of rock engravings in the Northern Territory....
Parque Nacional Serra da Capivara
São Raimundo Nonato, Brazil
Deep in the semi-arid caatinga of northeastern Brazil, over 1,200 rock shelters hold more than 30,000 paintings spanning millennia....
Pla de Petracos Sanctuary
Castell de Castells, Castell de Castells, Alicante, Valencian Community, Spain
Eight sheltered overhangs on a limestone cliff in the mountains of Alicante hold one of Europe's earliest known sanctuaries....
Quinkan Split Rock Art Site
Laura, Queensland, Laura, Queensland, Australia
Split Rock rises above the Peninsula Development Road south of Laura, its sandstone overhangs holding painted and engraved figures generations old....
Red Hands Cave
Glenbrook / Blue Mountains, New South Wales, Glenbrook / Blue Mountains, New South Wales, Australia
A sandstone shelter in the Blue Mountains carries dozens of ochre hand stencils, left by Darug and Gundungurra people across centuries and dated to roughly 500 to 1,600...
Santimamiñe Cave
Kortezubi, Kortezubi, Bizkaia, Basque Country, Spain
Inside a hillside cave near Bilbao, Magdalenian hunter-gatherers painted fifty animal figures roughly 14,000 years ago — bison, horses, ibex — in a chamber so deep it...
Saraakallio Rock Paintings
Laukaa, Laukaa – Central Finland, Finland
Saraakallio is Fennoscandia's largest known rock-painting site: a sheer cliff on Lake Saraavesi in Laukaa, Central Finland, carrying roughly 200 red ochre figures painted...
Siega Verde Archaeological Site
Castillejo de Martín Viejo, Castillejo de Martín Viejo, Salamanca, Castile and León, Spain
Along a quiet bend of the Águeda river, hunter-gatherers scratched horses, aurochs, and deer into bare schist tens of thousands of years ago....
Syrjäsalmi Rock Painting
Puumala, Puumala / Saimaa area – South Savo, Finland
At a narrow bay of Lake Saimaa in Puumala, red ochre figures — stick people, a worn moose, a round-headed human form — span three height levels on a rock face of...
Tehueto Petroglyphs and Me’ae
Atuona / Hiva Oa, Marquesas Islands, Atuona / Hiva Oa, Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia
Tehueto holds tiki heads, a stone ceremonial platform, and petroglyphs of raised-arm human figures carved into a large basalt block, reached by a river-valley hike inland...
The Rock Carvings of Alta
Alta, Troms og Finnmark, Norway
At the head of the Alta Fjord in Norway's far north, more than six thousand figures have been pecked into exposed bedrock over nearly five millennia....
Ubirr
Jabiru / East Alligator region, Northern Territory, Jabiru / East Alligator region, Northern Territory, Australia
Ubirr rises above Kakadu's Nadab floodplain, its galleries layered with rock art spanning tens of thousands of years and its escarpment tied to the Dreaming journey of...
Uittamonsalmi Rock Painting
Mikkeli, Ristiina / Mikkeli area – South Savo, Finland
Four separate clusters of Stone Age painting — a legless moose, paired boats, horned human figures, and a striking ring-headed form — stretch across 250 meters of rock...
Värikallio Rock Paintings
Suomussalmi (Hossa), Suomussalmi / Hossa – Kainuu, Finland
On a sheer rock face above Lake Somerjärvi in Finland's far northeast, Bronze Age hunters painted more than sixty figures in red ochre and blood — elk, hand prints, and...
Wanshan Rock Carvings
Maolin, Kaohsiung City, Maolin, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan
The Wanshan Rock Carvings are Taiwan's sole confirmed body of prehistoric rock art, four remote sites of undeciphered spirals, faces, and snake figures carved into stone...
Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park
Milk River, Alberta, Canada
In southern Alberta, the Milk River has carved a valley of sandstone cliffs and hoodoos that the Blackfoot call matapiiksi — the people....
Key questions
Rock Art sacred-site questions
- What rock art sacred sites are included?
- Rock Art sacred sites are places where this site type carries religious, ritual, cultural, or pilgrimage significance. This guide lists 41 in the current Pilgrim Map atlas.
- Where are these rock art sites located?
- Major country clusters include Australia, Finland, Spain, Norway, United Kingdom, Brazil.
- Which traditions are represented?
- Traditions represented here include Indigenous, Celtic and Prehistoric, Finnish Prehistoric, Prehistoric, Prehistoric/Megalithic, Stone Age Saimaa Rock Painting Tradition.
- Can I view rock art sacred sites on a map?
- Yes. Compare the country and tradition clusters, switch to map view for geography, then use site pages for practical context and related places.