Shankargarh Caves


Useful Information

Location: Shankargarh, state of Uttar Pradesh.
Open: not open at the moment
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As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then.
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History

OCT-2002 caves discovered by a police officer.

Description

This caves were long known to the locals. They also knew about the prehistoric cave paintings but did not mention their age and value. But when labourers were pounding the rock face with hammers, hewing off chunks of stone to sell for silica, the locals were alarmed. They were sure it was wrong to destroy them and fetched the police superintendent from the neighbouring village. Superintendent Vijay Kumar recognized the possible value of the paintings, and exhorted the labourers to lay down their tools.

The red paintings show dancing people, men on horseback and a tribe hunting a bison with spears. First examination gives an age between 10,000 and 30,000 years, which is the Upper Palaeolithic era. They can not only be found at the cave entrance wall, but also inside the cave system. There are scenes from prehistoric life as well as detailed diagrams of the internal organs of animals. This resembles the drawings of Australian aborigines. The cave also contains descarded tools of the painters.

This cave is not open to the public in the moment. There will probably be a certain time of scientific research and the cave will be closed some years. But the Uttar Pradesh State Tourism Department is already planning to build a road into the jungle to the cave.