Kef El Baroud is located south of Magara Sanar, the northernmost site of prehistoric paintings in Morocco. This cave, located 10 km east of Ben Slimane and 30 km from the Atlantic coast and Rabat, was excavated beginning in 1973 and yielded a wealth of Neolithic and Chalcolithic material.
The art of cave painting
The open-air paintings likely existed but have long since disappeared. Research has also shown that the caves that housed them are now used as shelters for humans and animals, leading to the inevitable deterioration of the paintings.
The cave contains nine pale red non-figurative paintings on the walls on both sides of the cave.
The east-facing entrance to the main cave was 25 meters long and 7 meters wide. It reportedly overhangs 60 meters above the wadi channel, offering a panoramic view of the upper valley. North of the main cave entrance, on the east-facing façade, are three groups of petroglyphs. Cups, with engraved lines indicating spindle and angular cross-section.
Rock art provides clear evidence of how our ancestors lived tens of thousands of years ago. The cave paintings depict the various hunting techniques, social life, and beliefs of that time.
The most common motif was a pair of small spirals joined by a short vertical line to form an image resembling a ram's horns when viewed from the front. There is no way of knowing if these are of the same nature as the archaeological material.
Unfortunately, for several years now, the paintings have been invisible, covered with a thick black layer of smoke from the fires lit by the hunters and shepherds who shelter them.
