Kata Tjuta
A Giant Rock Sacred to the Aborigines
The Domed Rocks of Kata Tjuta
Description
Kata Tjuta, also known as the Olgas, are large domed rocks. There are about thirty-six rusty red colored domes. These rocks cover 8.37 square miles. The tallest rock mountain is called Mount Olga, and it is 1500 feet tall (You can see elevation map below). The different rocks represent figures of ancestors of the Aborigines to whom this site is sacred. There is a national park with walking trails and viewing ares of Kata Tjuta. This national park not only contains the great Olgas but also the Uluru, or Ayers Rock.
The Olgas (Kata Tjuta) Valley of the winds, Australia
Location
Kata Tjuta is located in central Australia in a town called Ayers Rock. Australia is a continent located in the southern hemisphere of the world, in the Oceania region. It is in a national park that contains the Kata Tjuta and the Uluru. The park also contains a lot of hiking trails through the rock formations as well as around the perimeter to get a good view of the giant domes.
Kata Tjuta is located in the central part of the continent in an isolated area near the Gibson Desert in Northern Territory. There is very little development near the park with a long drive to the nearest town.
The Kata Tjuta is located in the town of Ayres Rock.
This is a map of the the Kata Tjuta national park
An elevation map of Kata Tjuta
History
According to the Aboriginal Legends, the history goes all the way back to beginning of the world known as Alcheringe or the Dreamtime. This is when a form of ancestors emerged from the center of the earth and roamed around and made the landscape into everyday actions such as birth, play, singing, fishing, hunting, marriage, and death. After Dreamtime, the features hardened into stone and the body of the ancestor became hills, boulders, caves, lakes, and other land masses.
Sacred to the Aborigines
The domed rocks of Kata Tjuta are sacred to the Aborigines. The Aborigines are a tribe of Australian natives that year after year come to the Oglas and walk their traditional routes. The paths they walk are called dreaming paths or songlines. As they walk these paths, they sing songs telling about the myths of the Dreamtime and the songs contain directions across deserts to other sacred places. The Aborigines have many interpretations of what the domes represent in their myths and legends.
Why is it sacred to the Aborigines?
These rocks are sacred to them because they are able to walk the same paths as their ancestors. These sacred journeys are known as walkabouts. The Aborigines have come every year and followed the same paths for more than forty-thousand years, making the Aborigines the oldest continuing culture in the world. Having something that your ancestors did and knowing that generations after you will do the same thing makes something very sacred. Not only did Kata Tjuta give the Aborigines a pilgrimage tradition but it also gave them sacred geography to admire and cherish.