Painted cattle in rock shelters of the Horn
Laas Geel is a group of rock shelters in the north-west of Somalia, outside Hargeisa, discovered by archaeologists in 2002. Its walls are covered with vivid paintings in red, white and ochre, several thousand years old, showing long-horned cattle decorated with ceremonial robes alongside people, dogs and giraffes. The colours have survived remarkably well in the dry climate. The site sits on a granite outcrop above the junction of two dry riverbeds.