© L.F. Paoluzzi
So small on the surface, Lesotho, on the other hand, hides a great archaeological heritage among its extraordinary mountainous landscapes. A treasure trove that harks back to the ancient civilisations of the San people, the first Bushmen inhabitants who perched more than 3,000 years ago among its heights, painting its rocky ravines, but which also takes us back to geological eras so distant in time that they fall into the sphere of myth, thanks to the incredible evidence left by the fossil footprints of dinosaurs, who lived millions of years ago.
From Leribe (Hlotse) in the north of the country, to Quthing in the south, via Morija in the west, one of the visitors’ favourite activities will be to literally ‘hunt’ for minowane, dinosaur footprints, scattered on the cliff faces and attributable to the most impressive specimens of carnivorous bipeds, down to the smallest Lesothosaurus, similar to a large lizard, which lived more than 200 million years ago.
Some of Lesotho’s most impressive footprint sites can be reached by trekking on foot or on ponyback, on the Makhoarane Plateau, near the towns of Roma and Morija, while near Leribe in the far north, the most copious groups of footprints are preserved in the Subeng River area and the village of Tsikoane, which can be traced back to at least three different species of dinosaurs. On the other hand, a small geological gem can be found in the south of the country, near Masitise Cave, not far from the town of Quthing, where a large number of footprints are scattered near the curious little rock church that a Swiss missionary had built in the late 19th century on a pre-existing San settlement.
A true journey through time, therefore, taking us back to ancient Jurassic eras, but also a veritable open-air anthropological museum belonging to the ancient San civilisation. Lesotho’s most famous rock paintings are found not far from the capital Maseru, also easily accessible from the artisanal town of Teyateyaneng, on the site of Ha Baroana, with anthropomorphic shamanic and animal iconographies, dance and hunting scenes, in an area that has never ceased to be inhabited and whose ravines were chosen until the 19th century as a refuge for the Basia clan, to escape wars and invasions. Here are the characteristic clay houses, wanted by the Teleka clan leader and still inhabited today, protected under the deep cleft in the Ha Kome cliff.
But Lesotho is full of thousands of years of rock art, from the splendid specimens of Liphofung Cave, near the village of Muela in the far north of the country, which can be reached on beautiful walks or horseback rides, to the sites around the small village of Malealea, a pioneer centre of ecotourism in the central highlands, with its historic Lodge and magnificent natural landscapes dotted with waterfalls and rural villages.
