The Rock Paintings of Sierra de San Francisco are ancient rock art pictures created by people long ago. These paintings are located in the Sierra de San Francisco mountain range, which is in the Mulegé Municipality of the northern part of Baja California Sur state in Mexico.

History

The pictographs were probably created by the Cochimi people who lived in the Baja California peninsula. This group no longer existed as a culture by the 1800s, but information about them is better known because of writings by Jesuit missionaries in the 1700s. The paintings on the ceilings and walls of rock shelters in the Sierra de San Francisco were first found by Europeans in the 1700s by the Mexican Jesuit missionary José Mariano Rotea.

Some beliefs recorded by the Jesuits and others suggested the paintings were made by a group of giants. However, scientists have not accepted this idea since the late 1800s. This belief might have come from the large size of many human and animal figures in the art. Some people have guessed the paintings might relate to hunting magic, religious practices, or ancestor worship, but there is no agreement on these ideas. Animals shown include deer, wild sheep, rabbits, pumas, lynxes, whales, turtles, fish, and birds. There are also abstract shapes of different kinds. Many radiocarbon dates of the paintings show they were created as early as 5500 BCE and as recently as the 1700s, when Europeans first arrived in the area.

Geography

The rock paintings are found at about 250 sites, which are located east of the El Vizcaino Biosphere Reserve. These locations are hard to reach, which has helped protect the paintings from damage and destruction.

This area contains one of the most significant groups of Pre-Columbian art on the Baja California Peninsula. The art is of very high quality, meeting national and international standards. It is known for the number of paintings, the variety of human and animal figures, the creativity of the designs, the bright and vivid colors, and the excellent condition in which the paintings are preserved.

In 1989, the rock paintings of Sierra de San Francisco were nominated for, and in 1993 were officially named, a World Heritage Site.