GIRAFFES IN ROCK ART:

Giraffe. Image from Animal Conservation Awareness.

Giraffes, Niger. Internet image, public domain.

One theme in rock art consists of animal portrayals, records of the life in and around the artist’s environment. And, some animals are just more interesting than others. For one reason or another something about them feels improbable, or at least extreme, and that can fascinate us. For me this would include giraffes, the improbably long-necked animal of Africa.

Giraffe, Tanzania. Image from Ritchie, page 102.

Giraffes, as a theme in rock art, are mostly found in various parts of Africa from the South Cape to the Mediterranean because that is where they exist in life. Much of the fascination with giraffes is caused by their improbable build and life. Although they appear to be ungainly, lions seldom manage to take down a fully grown giraffe. They can run deceptively fast and have a deadly kick.

Bosworth, near Klerksdorp, Transvaal. Image from Wilcox, 1963, p. 76. 

In southern and South Africa some San groups regard the giraffe as a ritual animal possessing supernatural potency (often called n/um by Kalahari San peoples). This spiritual force is associated with healing, trance, and access to the spirit world. During healing dances, shamans enter altered states of consciousness. A traditional "Giraffe Medicine Song" has been recorded among Kalahari San communities and is used to help healers enter trance and travel spiritually.

Giraffes appear with frequency in San rock paintings. Many researchers interpret these paintings not simply as hunting scenes but as depictions of spiritual experiences, trance visions, or animals associated with supernatural power. San cosmology is broadly animistic. Animals are not merely game; they are persons or beings with spiritual significance. Giraffes, along with kudu, elephants, and other animals, can appear as guides, powerful beings, or participants in the spirit world. The importance of this role may explain the frequency of their appearance on the rocks.

Matopos, Zimbabwe. Zimmbabwe Ministry of Culture. Image from Ritchie, page 31.

In Zimbabwe “a study of the morphological and behavioral attributes of the giraffe can be central to the understanding of San rock art even though such studies have  to be supported by different theoretical frameworks.” (Muringaniza and Manyanga 2017:11-12) The truly large number of San giraffe portrayals attests to their importance to the culture of these people.

Leaving southern Africa and heading northward toward sub-Saharan Africa we find more giraffe imagery, the most impressive of which is found at Dabous, in Niger. “The Dabous Giraffes are Neolithic petroglyphs by unknown artists on the western side of the Air Mountains in north-cantral Niger. The carvings are 6 meters (20 ft) in height and consist of two giraffes carved into the Dabous Rock with a great amount of detail. One of the giraffes is male, while the other, smaller, is female. The Dabous Giraffes are located on a sandstone outcrop in the Tenere desert in the first foothills of the Air Mountains, about 110 km north of Agadez and a few kilometers from the Trans-Saharan Highway. They are the largest known animal petroglyphs in the world.” (Wikipedia) This last sentence may be questioned given the claim of a gigantic snake petroglyphs found in South America.

Dabous giraffes, Niger. Internet image, public domain.

This location possesses a considerable store of rock art. “In the surroundings, 828 images have been found engraved on the rocks, of which 704 are animals (cattle, giraffes, ostriches, antelopes, lions, rhinoceros, and camels), 61 are human, and 17 are inscriptions in Tifinagh. The carvings are believed to have been done between 6,000 and 8,000 years ago, during the African humid period, when the region was less arid, and the Sahara was a vast savannah.” (Wikipedia) During this period the Sahara desert was a well-watered grassland and we may assume that giraffes were common there at that time.

Dabous giraffes, Niger. Image from Bradshaw Foundation.

“The two life-size giraffe petroglyphs, known as the Dabous giraffe, are the largest known animal carvings in the world. These tall and graceful animals were perceived by a paleolithic society as especially impressive: chimeric figures, with the face of a camel and the spots of a leopard, markings that had been portrayed with such attention to detail in the carvings; animals with a speed and ferociousness in self-defence that belied their unhurried gait? There is no other animal like a giraffe. Or perhaps their unique attribute resided in their unusually large eyes which may have attracted the attention of ancient cultures. The giraffes’ ability to see great distances, beyond scent or sound, would not have gone unnoticed, and may have become a metaphor for foresight and prediction.” (Bradshaw Foundation) ‘May’ and ‘perhaps’ indicate guesswork here, but their unique appearance certainly attracts attention and one would expect would have led to a position of importance in the cosmology of the people. Needless to say, if giraffes had lived in North America there would be a whole lot of giraffe petroglyphs and pictographs here as well.

Giraffe petroglyph, Algeria. Image from Bradshaw Foundation.

Giraffe, Wadi al-Ajal, Libya. Internet image, public domain.

The giraffe is also a common theme in North Africa with examples known from Algeria and Libya.

NOTE 1: ChatGPT was used for researching information about San beliefs concerning giraffes.

NOTE 2: Some images in this column were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.

REFERENCES:

Bradshaw Foundation, Giraffe carvings in the Sahara Desert: Introduction to the Dabous Giraffe Petroglyph. https://www.bradshawfoundation.com/giraffe/. Accessed online 16 May 2026.

Muringaniza, Comfort Simbarashe and Munyaradzi Manyanga, 2017, Necks on the rocks:  the giraffe in the rock art of Jahunda, in Archives, Objects, Places and Landscapes: Multidisciplinary approaches to Decolonized Zimbabwean pasts. Chapter 5, Pub. Langaa Research and Publishing CIG. Bamenda, Camaroon. Accessed online 16 May 2026.

Ritchie, Carson I.A., 1979, Rock Art of Africa, A.S. Barnes and Company, Inc. Cranbury, New Jersey.

Wikipedia, Dabous Giraffes, Accessed online 16 May 2025.

Wilcox, A.R., 1963, Rock Art of South Africa, Thomas Nelson and Sons, Ltd., Johannesburg, South Africa.