The Drakensberg contains the highest concentration of San rock paintings in southern Africa, with thousands of sites in sheltered overhangs and cave mouths throughout the range. Many of the Northern Drakensberg sites are accessible on day walks from the Royal Natal rest camp or from community-managed access points in the Mnweni valley.
The paintings use a palette of red, orange, yellow, and white ochre, with charcoal for black. Figures depicted include eland (the most sacred animal in San cosmology), hunters, dancers, mythological creatures, and therianthropes — beings that are part human and part animal. Some paintings are clearly thousands of years old; others are much more recent.
To protect the paintings, visitors are asked not to touch the rock face and not to apply water or any substance to the paintings. Some sites require a guide; the park gates can advise on which sites are accessible independently and which need an escort. The on-site museum at Giant's Castle (in the Central Drakensberg) has excellent explanatory material if you want context before exploring the Northern Berg sites.