Event Calendar

This free lecture features critically acclaimed author and internationally recognized journalist Mark Jenkins, who presents "A Journey into the Ancient Namib Desert: Rock Paintings, a Vanished People, and Water Scarcity." The talk is part of the “World to Wyoming” Lecture Series organized by the University of Wyoming’s new Office of Engagement and Outreach.

Jenkins’s presentation centers around his 2015 trip—on assignment for National Geographic—to Brandenberg, Namibia’s highest mountain, in the Namib Desert. The mountain conceals the greatest collection of rock paintings on earth. Hidden in the shade beneath granite boulders, where an extinct tribe once escaped the scorching heat of the Namib Desert, 4000-year-old paintings depict a lost world of giraffes and elephants, snakes and springbok, bow hunters and community celebrations. During his time there, Jenkins climbed Brandberg in 120-degree heat to explore this alfresco art museum and reflect on the challenges of water scarcity then and now.