page_title: Sierra de San Borja
section_title: Rock paintings
hierarchical_section_title: Sierra de San Borja / Rock paintings
caption_attribution_description: English: Replica of rock paintings of the Sierra de San Francisco at the Museo Nacional de AntropologíaEspañol: Museo Nacional de Antropología
context_page_description: The Sierra de San Borja, also known as Sierra La Libertad is a mountain range on the Baja California Peninsula of Mexico. It is one of the Peninsular Ranges which form the backbone of Baja California. The Sierra de San Borja is located between 28° North latitude and 29° North latitude. The highest point of the Sierra is Cerro La Sandia, 1,775 metres in elevation located at 28°24′25″N 113°26′18″W.
  The Sierra de San Borja is nearly uninhabited. Desert vegetation prevails with only a few water sources. Tourists visit the San Francisco Borja Mission and the extensive prehistoric rock art scattered throughout the mountains.
context_section_description: The Sierra de San Borja is the northernmost outpost of the "Great Mural" rock art of the central Baja California mountains. In explorations in the 1970s, author Harry W. Crosby found six major sites of Great Mural rock art southeast of the San Borja mission.  Several others have since been discovered. Great mural rock Art consists of prehistoric paintings of humans and other animals, often larger than life-size, on the walls and ceilings of natural rock shelters. 
  The number of Great Mural sites in the San Borja mountains is fewer than further south in the Sierra de San Francisco where the rock paintings have been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.  The area near the San Borja Mission is a dividing line between the Great Mural rock art to the south and the more abstract style of rock painting found to the north. The paintings of the Great Mural rock art of the Sierra de San Borja are smaller than more southerly works, less diverse in their subject matter, and are always colored in shades of red.  Given their similarity to each other, Crosby speculated that the San Borja rock paintings were created by a single ethnic group and within a relatively short period of time.
  Jesuit missionaries became aware of some of the Great Murals in the eighteenth century but the local Cochimí Indians disclaimed any knowledge of their origin. The dates that the Great Murals were painted is in dispute, with post-400 BCE being most widely accepted. but radiocarbon dating at the site of San Borjitas (south of the Sierra de San Borja) suggest that the murals at that site may be as old as 5500 BCE.
caption: An example of Great Mural rock art.
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