The Western Cape, particularly the mountainous region from the Cold Bokkeveld north through the Cederberg to the Agter Pakhuis area, may have more rock paintings per square kilometer than anywhere else in Southern Africa. In South Africa, rock art was made by San hunter-gatherers and Khoekhoen pastoralists. Black farmers created rock art of a different kind. The creation of images on rocks has an extraordinarily long tradition in Southern Africa and South Africa probably has the richest legacy of rock art in the world.

The art consists of both paintings and engravings. Engravings are generally found in open-air sites in the interior of South Africa. The artists used several techniques, either pecking (stippling) or cutting lines in the patina known as fine line engravings. In contrast to the engravings, paintings are found in rock shelters and shallow overhangs.

The materials used to make these paintings were generally different kinds of minerals. Red is the most commonly used colour and was made from ferric oxide and ochre of various shades. Black pigment was prepared from charcoal and specularite. White, the most ephemeral colour, was made from silica, china clay and gypsum. Other media used by the San include plant sap, eggwhite and perhaps water. The paint was applied with brushes made from reeds, feathers, quills or hair, or directly with the fingers.

Southern African rock art essentially contains a religious element. San religion, like many others, used ritual practices to generate supernatural powers. The paintings and engravings recorded the experiences of shamans or medicine men and women in an altered state of conciousness (trance). They “became” animals in order to enhance their power as healers or rain-makers, or to control game during a hunt.

In an altered state of consciousness, the shaman perceived images and believed he was part of those images. During the first stage of the trance the shaman saw patterns of light like grids, wavy lines, dots, vortices and zigzags. During the second stage, animals or objects of significance were seen; the eland being particularly important to the San. During the third stage of the trance all the images from the previous stages are merged. All of these experiences are depicted in San art and images of people with animal heads and hooves were frequently recorded.

Paintings and engravings sometimes depict animals as part of the rain-making ritual, although the form of these animals varies. The most commonly depicted animal in San art is the eland.

In the Cederberg and Warm Bokkeveld, paintings of elephants are common, reflecting perhaps their importance to that area. Other animals also frequently depicted in this area are rhebuck and hartebeest.