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The Foggini Cave
The most spectacular rock art site in the Gilf
Kebir, Egypt
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Quick impressions following a
visit paid during November 2003
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A vault literally covered by hundreds
of paintings...
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The Foggini Cave was discovered in May
2002 by Jacopo and Massimo Foggini on a tour to the Gilf
Kebir lead by Abdel Wahed from the "Zarzora
Expeditions", an Egyptian company specialized in desert
tourism. This new cave, located on the southern slopes of
the Gilf Kebir, not far from the famed Swimmer's Cave, is
literally covered by hundreds of paintings and also some
very nice and executed engravings. The decorated surface is
many square meters, without any major lacunae, buried until
an unknown high by wind-blown sand. By far it is the most
important rock |
| art site of the whole Egyptian Western
Desert as spectacular as the rock art sites of the neighbor
Uweinat massif but ostensibly expression of a different
ancient culture. The Foggini, may be with little
imagination, dubbed this cave the "Cappella Sistina"
of the Prehistory. The discoverers released the new to the
newspapers and published some good reports on the Italian
popular magazines. Airone, Gulliver and Avventure
nel Mondo made the cave familiar to everybody by
printing a lot of professional pictures. |
| Not surprisingly, the site, which
location had to be kept secret according to the
archaeologists, is now visited by hundreds of tourists. So,
when pushed to visit the cave by a stubborn professional
journalist, eager to write in its turn his own guide to the
Gilf Kebir, I felt at first as I already has been there.
After a while I realized how many interesting details were
there that the magazines did not presented to the general
public. Notwithstanding the extremely poor light I found at
the time of my visit, I started to shot my digital and
analogical pictures. |
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The "so-called" lion
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Engraved Oryx with footprints
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Now the Terramata Gilf Kebir master file
is a little bit enriched. Here are presented some pictures
from the cave vault I like most, not necessarily the most
interesting for the archaeologist. The presence in the
Foggini Cave of the same themes featured in the
wind-and-tourists worn Cave of the Swimmers is very obvious.
I do dare the same artists were at work but they had a
better and more extended panel to paint and engrave. From
the crowded background emerge some "lions" without
heads; they appeared impressive also to the guys from
Baharya which |
| nicknamed the site "the Lions
Cave". Actually they are not lions because they lave
human legs; apparently they represent a couple of men enacting
a lion. One of this lion body is bounded by yellowish
stripes geometrically ornamented: it is the same kind
"lion" observed in the nearby Swimmer's Cave. |
| In addition to these impressive
"lions" there are a lot of stencil hands: of the
many evident superimposed layers they constituted the oldest
one. The archaeologists will have a lot of fun in unraveling
all these strata. The repertoire is so rich that there will
be some good opportunities also for the most daring
unconventional historian. Hundreds of dark human figures
featured by heads-like-dots (to not say "rounded
heads") apparently busy in a wide variety of
activities. Ibex, gazelles, and other animals that require
careful analysis to be identified are also represented. |
Stencil Hands
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Disfigured "Bibendum"
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There are also some oversized figures
that are very disquieting; a sort of threatening being
featured by an inflated torso. I nicknamed them "Bibendum"
but it is clearly the "dark man" lingering in the
dark corners and scaring children. In the case of the side
picture it is evident that the figure was repeatedly hit
with a pointed stone or dart. Is somewhere any more direct
and best evidence of a prehistoric rite involving a painted
of an evil being? May be I am wrong in interpreting what is
painted in this |
| fantastic exhibition of prehistoric are
but I am pretty sure it will take many year before the cave
will be cleared, completely mapped, studied by true
archaeologists, and finally presented to the public in a
plain but scientifically correct language. |
| I took many pictures of "the river
painting" with the people mirroring on a rock fracture
used to symbolize a stream of water. I took also a picture
of this group of people, one row standing up and one row
upside-down. By itself these image requires some hundreds of
words just to be described. Anyway what are they doing these
people in an upside-down position? Meanwhile the
professional rock art scientist is elaborating the right
answer enjoy yourself and try your hypothesis. |
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What are they doing upside-down?
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Men with an axe
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I liked this warrior branding a
"tomahawk": it is just on the west side of the
cave, opposite to the main access. I like also a lot the
many "dancers" represented almost everywhere.
Anyway, do no forget to look also at the vault edge on the
cave opening: it is home to very fine engravings, carved and
smoothed in the internal area: there are giraffes, gazelles,
oryx and human figures. |
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