Kondoa Rock Painting Of Kolo
Standing 240 km from Arusha town is the Kolo Area in the south of Arusha town which is a 4 hours’ drive of the Great North Road. The area is 20 km from Kondoa District Center in Dodoma Region (Tanzania Capital City).
The Kondoa rock painting is in the list of the World Heritage Sites under the UNESCO in the category of the cultural heritage sites which remarks the ancient rock art. The painting has been remarkable not just because of its quantity but also the quality. They are the paintings of human figures and the wild animals (Eland, Giraffe, and Elephants) which are usually in the dark red paints and other designs that can be seen of the rocks and caves.
According to the researchers, the rock painting is believed to be dated 5,000 to 10,000 years as the attributes of the hunter-gathered bushmen, a click language tribe who are believed to be the ancestors of the Sandawe tribe that dominate the Kondoa District in the Dodoma Region. This is due to the fact that the Sandawe language in Kondoa and that of the Hadzabe in lake Eyasi is connected which is the Khosian language spoken by the people in the Kalahari Desert in South Africa, as it is not surprising to see the same paintings in some parts of Southern Africa to places where the Bushmen inhabited.
The Kondoa Rock painting has been of interest as it is easily accessed as it is located along the Maasai escapement bordering the Great Rift Valley of 160 km from the Elephant Paradise, the Tarangire National Park. Hence visiting the Rock can be a day trip from Tarangire whereby travelers will be leaving from Tarangire with the packed Lunch Boxes for a 2 to 3-hour tour to the Kolo rock Painting in Kondoa and thereafter returning to Tarangire. Though not limited to a day tour as visitors might be interested in spending a night and having more time exploring different paintings, they can do an overnight in the basic accommodation facilities (Guesthouse) in Kondoa town.