Hidden within the caves of Mount Suswa lies a gallery older than any living tradition — ancient rock paintings created by early inhabitants of the Rift Valley, their pigments still clinging to the volcanic stone after centuries or millennia. These are not decorations but records: figures of hunters and animals, abstract symbols whose meanings have faded with the cultures that made them, and the handprints of people who lived here when the landscape was even wilder than it is today.

Few people know these paintings exist. Fewer still have stood before them. Our guided visits offer a rare, respectful encounter with one of East Africa’s least-documented rock art sites, in the company of guides who can place the art in its archaeological and cultural context.