Brandberg and the surrounding desert is well known for its archaeological sites. I was given the opportunity to visit the Brandberg National Monument and observe one of its most popular attractions, The White Lady.
To get to the site with the cave paintings you have to walk 2.5 km. Piece of cake, right? Not so much. We started our hike at 1pm in the middle of the Namibian summer. The temperature on the flat hike was over 40 degrees C, over 100 degrees F. I don't think I've ever been so hot in my life. It was the hardest 5K I've ever done. Was it worth it? Definitely.
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| The cave paintings |
The White Lady cave painting was discovered in 1917 and is estimated to be over 1000 years old. The central figure in the cave painting was misidentified as a white woman, indicating that the natives were aware of white men hundreds of years before the first records. However, this was incorrect. The figure is a medicine man. Occasionally these men would paint themselves with white clay in religious rituals, which is how the man is depicted in the cave painting.
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| The White Lady |
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