Robert HardingIntrepid travel photographer Michael Runkel visited Laas Geel, a little known ancient site that is home to some of the earliest known cave paintings in the Horn of Africa. Hidden away in the self-declared state of Somaliland (officially known as northern Somalia), this beautiful rock art – thought to be between 5000 and 10,000 years old – has been known to the area’s inhabitants for many generations, but only came to international attention when a team of experts ‘discovered’ it in 2002.
The beautifully preserved paintings show cattle and herders, suggesting that the surrounding landscape was once far more lush than the arid, drought-prone scrubland it is now.
