Pakistan is going to lose one of the most precious rock art carvings due to construction of the Diamer-Basha Dam. The proposed site of the dam hosts some 30,000 ancient art carvings and inscriptions which may vanish forever due to the construction of this reservoir.

Some of the carvings and inscriptions are more than 10,000 years old which provide a window to discover ancient lexicography, history, anthropology, culture and lifestyle of the people settled in the upper Indus area.

There is an urgent need to preserve these sites so that they remain a part of world heritage. – Photos courtesy by Harald Hauptmann / Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Germany.