Tan Zumaitak


   

  The shelter of Tan Zumaitak is a leisurely hour's walk to the north-east from the northern campground at Tamrit, via a spectacular natural amphitheatre, with perpendicular walls, and a perfectly flat round sandy bottom. The shelter is on the west side of a shallow and narrow little valley that supports some small acacias and plenty of yellow flowers on the wadi floor after rains. It is a single large rock shelter, with many superimposed human and animal figures from the roundhead period. The quality and preservation of the paintings is excellent. (This shelter was discovered by the Swiss expedition a few years before the Lhote mission, and they never used the 'wet sponge' technique to make the paintings look brighter for copying and photography - it shows !). There is another small shelter some way up on the side of the valley opposite the main shelter, with a few painted cattle.