Uluru, Red Center
Uluru at dusk
Uluru is one of the most recognized sites in the world, an enormous red sandstone formation in the middle of the Australian Outback. It’s impressive because of its size, color, and dramatic appearance unencumbered by trees, mountains, lakes or man-made structures. You can’t say that of San Francisco’s Bay Bridge, the Grand Canyon, or Yosemite.
Uluru (Ayers Rock)
Uluru stunning presence is a spiritual site of the Anangu aboriginal people who lived in the desert. Like many aboriginal communities who lived in the area, they created legends of creation, love, death, and revenge about Uluru and it’s many unusual features.
Ayers Rock
Until recently, the site was known as Ayers Rock, named by an explorer in 1873 for the South Australian Governor, Sir Henry Ayers. But with the growing cultural sensitivity to rights of aboriginal people in the late 20th century, the site was renamed Ayers Rock – Uluru in 1993. The order of the names were switched to Uluru – Ayers rock in 2002, which today is considered more politically correct.
During our travels in Australia, we noticed that Aussies referred to it as Uluru and not Ayers Rock. We interpreted this as recognition that the landmark is more appropriately called by the name aboriginal people knew it by for centuries, rather than for an Australian bureaucrat who may have never visited.
Southwestern slope of Uluru
Uluru is an impressive geological formation, one of the most unusual in the world, named a World Heritage site in 1973 because of its natural and cultural significance. It rises 350 meters above the desert floor (more than 1100 feet), and is 9 kilometer circumference. The formation is much larger below ground.
After our late morning visit to Kata Tjuta, we drove 30 kilometers to Uluru to hike the east and west sides, sometimes close enough to reach out and touch it’s hard sandstone.
The many features of Uluru
Up close, Uluru appears much different that it does from a distance. Photos and posters of Uluru taken from a distance of several kilometer portray its vastness and size. We were somewhat surprised that as we hiked around, there were many features not noticeable from a distance — pits, crevasses, scree, and caves carved by centuries of wind and water erosion.
Large parts of Uluru appears as pillowed waves of red, hardened sandstone that seem to ripple to the desert floor.
Waving sand like appearance on Uluru west side
Other areas of Uluru have cracks, crevices, and unusual formations created by erosion. Some design seem mythical, with faint resemblance to animals, people, or symbols from nature. Aboriginal people created creation legends and tales of their ancestors about these features.
Aboriginal legends said these formations represent indigenous animals
Aboriginal legend interpreted this formation as the figure of a hunter
Small caves in Uluru rock walls
Appears to be a ‘slice’ recently calved off Uluru
A hike into a Uluru canyon
We hiked into one canyon on the east side to view unusual formations and ancient petroglyphs. The canyon was between folds in Uluru’s formation. The closer we hiked, the more features we could see that were not apparent from the trail or road.
Hiking into canyon in east wall of Uluru
End of trail; two canyon walls come together like folded fingers. See next photo for closer view.
Two walls come together like folded fingers; water from top trickles into pool below
Aboriginal legend says these caves were steps aboriginal boys used when creating Uluru
Hiking out of the canyon, we stopped at an overhang which had aboriginal petroglyphs painted in ochre, faded by time. An unusual aspect was that the petroglyphs were painted on a shelf about four meters above ground which means the ancient artists would have stepped on rocks to reach the overhang. Or the ground could have been higher at the time they were painted.
Either way, one wonders who and when these ancient works were painted and what legends they represent.
Ancient aboriginal petroglyph
Aboriginal petroglyph of animal, reptile, or creation myth?
Uluru up close
While we hiked along Uluru’s trails, we saw many unusual formations, scree, and red boulders that are like nothing we’d ever seen before; beautiful, artistic, and mystical. No wonder that the aboriginal people have such spiritual reverence for Uluru.
Touching Uluru
A highlight of our Uluru experience was touching the rock; one could almost feel a mystical contact with the ancient and revered formation. We won’t forget this moment.
Touching Uluru
Next: Uluru sunset
* * * * *
In addition to this travel blog, I write international thrillers, mysteries, and romantic suspense novels.
I’m currently writing the Milan Thriller Series featuring Italy’s anti-terrorism police, DIGOS (Divisione Investigazioni Generali e Operazioni), as they pursue domestic and international terrorists.
I travel to Italy every summer for research, to see Italian and American friends, to work with my researchers, and to meet DIGOS officers at Milan’s Questura (police headquarters) who advise me with DIGOS investigative procedures.
If you’d like to receive a free ebook of my short mystery, Perfect Crime, which has more than 2000 reviews on Amazon, please sign up on the left side bar. I just need your name and email address.
You can find the Milan Thriller Series and all my ebooks at digital book sites and on my publisher’s Website, RedBrickPress.net.
Paperbacks of Thirteen Days in Milan, No One Sleeps, and Vesuvius Nights are also available at RedBrickPress.net, Amazon, and independent bookstores. If they’re not in stock, stores can order from the Ingram distributor. You should have your book in 3 or 4 days.
If you’d like to learn more about Italy, travel, and writing, sign up for my email newsletter at my publisher’s website or my personal web site jackerickson.com.
I like hearing from readers! Please email and tell me what you like to read. If you have friends who’d like to read this blog, please send it along to them.
Thank You!
Travel with us for a Year and a Day 
really neat. Reminder one a little of Bryce Canyon?
K
LikeLike
We went to Uluru a couple of years ago. It is truly amazing.
LikeLike
Wow, you’re right, the place feels different close up, more awe-inspiring and humbling. You took some beautiful photos! (They must guard the area from grafiti and mountain climbers?) We do love to be humbled by nature, to find our place.
LikeLike