The Kondoa Rock-Art Sites are a collection of painted rock shelters on the eastern slopes of the Maasai escarpment in central Tanzania, roughly 20 km north of Kondoa town and 9 km east of the main Arusha–Dodoma road. UNESCO inscribed the sites on the World Heritage List in 2006; the listed area covers 233,600 hectares and is estimated to hold between 150 and 450 decorated shelters. The paintings span several traditions. The oldest are naturalistic red-ochre figures of animals and elongated humans attributed to hunter-gatherers; later "late white" paintings of cattle and geometric forms are linked to farming and pastoralist communities. Excavation at the Kisese II shelter shows the area was occupied more than 40,000 years ago. The most accessible shelters are around Kolo village, where the Antiquities office assigns guides; walks to the shelters take an hour or two on foot. The Sandawe people still use some shelters for healing ceremonies, so the sites remain a living tradition rather than a museum.
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