200 Francs Abourma Rock Art

Reverse

High relief and colored depiction of "The Zoo", one of the rocks of the Abourma Rock Art Site. This superb archaeological site features well-preserved rock engravings dating back to Neolithic times, which are striking both for their rich complexity and their incredible variety. Many of the engravings depict animals that are no longer found in the area – giraffes, cows, antelopes, kudus, oryxes and ostriches. Human figures are also represented.

Script: Latin

Lettering:
ABOURMA ROCK ART SITE
2023

Edge

Reeded

Comment

The Abourma Rock Art site is a huge, 3-kilometer stretch, of rocks with hundreds of carvings in the north of Djibouti on the Makarrassou massif. These rock carvings tell a story about the society at that time. Some images represent messages of the social class, the interaction with nature and hunting. There are many wild animals present like elephants, giraffes, hippos, rhinos and more but also domestic animals. This means that the climate at that time wasn’t as inhabitable as today.

The site was rediscovered in 2008 by a French archeologist. He was working more north in Djibouti at various small rock art sites when, at a restaurant in Randa for lunch, the waiter asked what he was doing. He showed pictures of the rock art and the waiter said: “We have so many of these as well nearby”. The next day he walked 5 hours to get to the places and was surprised to find all this rock art. After his return he came back and stayed and studied the site for many months. In 2014 a road was constructed cutting the walk to just 2 hours. It still takes a total of 6 hours to get to the site from Djibouti city today. It is off the beaten track. It’s listed to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Interesting fact

Price

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