Saturday, July 18, 2026 My Trip English中文
World news · travel · culture
Taiwan The Taiwan Times
台灣國際報 — Taiwan's window to the world
UNESCO World Heritage Site

Twyfelfontein

Namibia · Africa

Twyfelfontein
Twyfelfontein. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.

About

Twyfelfontein (Afrikaans: uncertain spring), officially known as ǀUi-ǁAis (Damara/Nama: jumping waterhole), is a site of ancient rock engravings in the Kunene Region of north-western Namibia. It consists of a spring in a valley flanked by the slopes of a sandstone table mountain that receives very little rainfall and has a wide range of diurnal temperatures.

The site has been inhabited for 6,000 years, first by hunter-gatherers and later by Khoikhoi herders. Both ethnic groups used it as a place of worship and a site to conduct shamanist rituals. In the process of these rituals at least 2,500 items of rock carvings have been created, as well as a few rock paintings. Displaying one of the largest concentrations of rock petroglyphs in Africa, UNESCO approved Twyfelfontein as Namibia's first World Heritage Site in 2007.

Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)。Photography via Wikimedia Commons.

More World Heritage in Africa