Black Genesis: The Prehistoric Origins of Ancient Egypt

The next day at dawn we headed a few more kilometers north along the massif of Gilf Kebir to see a cave recently
discovered by an Egyptian-Italian team in 2002, the Mestekawi-Foggini cave, named after its two discoverers. The cave
was actually a deep ledge high up a rocky cliff that can be reached only by climbing up a steep sand dune that abuts the
rocky cliff. It was very hot, and climbing up the dune took our breath away. We stood panting like marathon racers at the
end of their run, but we forgot any physical discomfort as soon as we stood before hundreds of prehistoric drawings of
men, women, cattle, and other fauna that filled the walls and ceiling of this large ledge. It was impossible to look at all of
the drawings at once, so we each picked a spot where we could lie on our backs on the clean sand and admire the ancient
art in segments. The Italian discoverer, Foggini, called this the Sistine Chapel of the Sahara, and no doubt a prehistoric
Michelangelo must have been at work here.
The cattle, which comprised 90 percent of the drawings, were in all sizes and postures and were perfectly
proportioned, running and being herded and milked by men and women. Clearly cattle were the dominant interest of these
ancient people. Were cattle sacred to them? There were, too, many prints of human hands with the palms and fingers fully
spread, clearly created in the same manner as those at other ancient rock art sites: by blowing (spray painting) with the
mouth over a hand. Was this to ward off evil or danger, or was it some sign of complex rituals? The cave also contained
scenes of groups of people who seemed to be involved in ritual and images of a human emerging from or morphing into
a powerful wild animal. This was so reminiscent of modern shamanic animal-spirit ritual that we called this the Cave of
the Shamans. In addition, there were images of a large orb, possibly a sun or moon—but our sun was approaching
noontime, and the heat became overbearing. It was time to resume our journey to Uwainat, the final destination of our
expedition.
We had to travel another 130 kilometers (81 miles) of open, flat desert to reach Uwainat. The sand, however, was
quite compact and firm, so we could drive at a fairly high speed. On our way we made a brief stop to examine a World
War II vehicle that had been abandoned by the Italian army, and we were amazed that there was almost no rust on the
metal parts. Halfway to Uwainat, we stopped again, this time to avoid getting too close to a large overloaded truck that
was smuggling illegal contraband from Libya to war-torn Darfur in Sudan. The smugglers simply waved at us, and, not
knowing what to do, we waved back. Our single military escort, Muhammad, said, “seebhom, homa nass ghalaba” (they
are poor people; leave them be). The border between Egypt and Sudan is totally unsupervised, and Muhammad told us
that a constant flow of smugglers passed here totally unchecked. In fact, worn into the sand is a pair of truck tracks,
which are followed by all the smugglers who angle across this corner of Egypt to Libya. Apparently it was all very
harmless, and both governments simply choose to turn a blind eye to this travel. We were told, however, that visitors had
to watch for rebels from the Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA), who have been known to kidnap tourists in this region for
ransom. As it turned out, we did not see any SLA rebels throughout our journey, although we cannot be sure whether
they had not seen us! Finally, late in the afternoon, we could see the mountains of Uwainat. We still had some 40
kilometers (25 miles) to cover, but everyone was tired, and because we did not want to drive in the dark, we opted to
make camp at the foot of a small dune and leave for Uwainat early the next morning.
Figure 5.2. Image of dancers at the Mestekawi-Foggini cave, southwest Gilf Kebir