Kangjiashimenzi Rock Art 康家石门子岩画

About Kangjiashimenzi Rock Art

Local herders found the carvings in 1987. The carved panel is about 14 metres east-west and 9 metres high, covering 120 square metres, and carries more than 300 human figures, the largest 2.04 metres tall and the smallest 10 centimetres. A 2017 report puts the number of recognisable images recorded at 292, mostly human figures with a smaller number of animals and tools.

Reported dates for the carvings differ. A 2016 Guangming Daily report describes them as more than 3,000 years old, while a symposium report the following year gives a range of 3,500 to 3,000 years and quotes a Minzu University archaeologist saying that the precise date, and the interval between the first carving and the later over-carving, remain open questions.

A conservation survey by Northwest University used three-dimensional scanning and microscopic observation to read the panel again. It concluded that the earliest subject was not a fertility scene but a dance scene of one man and eight women, and that the reclining male figure with prominent genitalia was added in a later period; it also found that many figures had been added to the panel over time.

What to look for

• The flat carved panel, about 14 metres east-west by 9 metres and 120 square metres in area
• The largest carved figure, 2.04 metres tall, and the smallest, 10 centimetres
• The dance scene of one man and eight women that the Northwest University survey identified as the earliest layer of the panel
• The reddish-brown rock of the mountain the carvings sit on, described as a geological feature left from the Jurassic period

Location & getting there

Getting to Kangjiashimenzi Rock Art

Check which interiors and courtyards are accessible. Active places of worship and protected monuments may have different visitor rules.

• Search for 康家石门子岩画 with 昌吉回族自治州 and 呼图壁县.