The Great God of Sefar
Round Head period · c. 10,000–9,000 BP · Tassili n'Ajjer · Algeria
WHAT IT IS
A giant figure with a round head and raised arms, painted in outline on a rock shelter in the Sahara. Its neighbour at Jabbaren was nicknamed the 'Great Martian God' by the man who first copied it.
THE ALIEN READING
Henri Lhote, who led the 1956–57 copying expedition, called a Jabbaren round-head the 'great Martian god' and publicised the idea of space visitors; von Däniken took it up as helmeted astronauts.
WHAT THE RECORD SAYS
Archaeologists read the Round Head figures as masked or ceremonial people, or deities. Lhote himself said his label came from the Martian faces of science fiction, and some of his expedition's copies are now thought to be inaccurate or faked (Keenan, 2003).
WHERE IT STANDS
Explained. Historians and archaeologists account for what it shows. The alien reading is a modern one.
STATUS IS OUR CURRENT ASSESSMENT, NOT A VERDICT · REVIEWED 3 OCT 2026
THE RECORD
- DATE
- Round Head period · c. 10,000–9,000 BP
- PLACE
- Tassili n'Ajjer · Algeria
- MADE BY
- Saharan hunter-gatherers
- MEDIUM
- Rock art
- TECHNICAL
- Painted rock shelter · Sefar, Tassili n'Ajjer National Park (UNESCO) · Round Head period
