Tuesday 2 April 2013

The Hands of History



To the north of the city of Makassar lies a region called Maros which features spectacular, forest covered vertical rock formations jutting out from the otherwise flat landscape.  It really will be difficult to appreciate any natural beauty the UK has to offer once I get home after witnessing South Sulawesi’s breathtaking landscapes, which also hide archaeological treasures.  I have always been fascinated by caves and have only recently had the opportunity to visit any.  So it was a welcome surprise when after arriving at Leang-leang national park to explore, a ranger led the way through an area suited to the set of a fantasy movie and then, unexpectedly, up several flights of metal stairs (the only blot on otherwise picturesque surroundings) attached to the side of a rock face and into a cave about a hundred metres up the side of a mountain.  I don’t know why I find such environments so intriguing, maybe it has something to do with the excitement most of us felt as children upon finding a secret area outdoors that can be used a ‘den’; or maybe because such areas are so untouched by humans that it almost feels like you’re on another planet.  We entered a small area which I assumed represented the total volume of the cave, but then were shown a gap about the size of an elongated, skinny man, so proceeded through it and found a much larger area mostly in darkness but with occasional spots of sunlight filtering down from the cracks in the rock scattered above.  There was also what I can only describe as a natural window in one wall of the cave looking out to the park below.  Among my sillier thoughts at this time was the idea that this would make an awesome place for the typical crowd found in a Newcastle based hippy’s house party to get the decks fired up and the people dancing.  Shortly after this, our guide climbed onto a ledge and pointed at the rock above him.  Like a fool it took me about twenty seconds to properly notice what he was pointing at, initially thinking he was simply showing me an interesting texture of rock, which it was.  Then when I did notice the hands, as you can see in the picture, 
I wondered how it had taken me so long to notice them.  These hand prints are over 5000 years old.  I find that mind boggling.  Whose are these hands, what is the story of their lives and their people?  What was happening here, thousands of years before the Roman Empire and on the other side of the world?  In another cave not far from this one, we were also shown shells embedded in the rock, implying that this place, far above sea level, and inland, had once been underwater.  One can easily experience a momentary appreciation of just how tiny our lives really are when faced with relics so old, and when also considering that even such a large amount of time represents many times less than one percent of the time life has been on earth.  This trip was all made possible by a very kind woman from  Makassar called Chicha who had messaged me on couchsurfing, a website for travellers to meet each other after I had posted a request for guidance.  I didn’t really know where places like this were, but she picked me up  at 6am after I had travelled overnight for ten hours, took me to meet her family who cooked for me, before being my guide, and then dropping me off in the city later that evening.  It seems there are good people who just want to help all over the world.

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