The Great Ride from Terkey Bowdé

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The arrival of the horse and camel, depicted together in Ennedi rock art (Chad), remains undated due to the lack of archaeological evidence from these animals. Rock art shows fantastical coral scenes featuring riders on horseback, symbolizing social change resulting from their introduction. The Terkey Bowdé cave boasts numerous such paintings. One prominent example is a small re-entrant covered in equestrian figures galloping through the air. In front of "The Great Ride," a horizontal slab features carved basins that may predate the horse paintings by millennia, given the Ennedi rock art spans thousands of years before the horses' introduction (IV century BCE?). Only at specific locations have pre-pastoral era paintings survived the harsh Sahelian climate's relentless weathering.