3 Things You Should Know about Uluru's Aboriginal Name Uluru-Ayers Rock: What’s in a Name? Many people ask us what is the Aboriginal name for Ayers Rock means. So we’ve written this page to not only help you to learn what the original name for Ayers Rock is, but also to dispel some of the myths about Ayers Rock’s original name. We often see information written on the internet about Ayers Rock that simply isn’t true. For example, I’ve seen websites stating that Ayers Rock is the heart chakra of the world! Until recently, Wikipedia’s entry claiming that Uluru means ‘island mountain’. I’ve even heard one ignorant tour guide at Uluru’s base spreading this ‘island mountain’ meaning to tourists. Not only is this untrue, it’s also offensive to Aboriginal people who have their own spiritual traditions associated with the Rock. So we want to make sure that you have the real facts about Uluru – and especially about the Aboriginal name for Ayers Rock. On this page, I (Amanda) will share my knowledge as an anthropologist and tell you the real story behind Ayers Rock’s original name. 1.

Uluru: The Original Name The Aboriginal name for Ayers Rock is Uluru. Uluru is a Yankunytjatjara word. Yankunytjatjara is the name of the Aboriginal people whose land Ayers Rock is located on. Uluru is not just the name of Ayers Rock itself, but also of the country around Ayers Rock. Uluru is in fact the name of a large tract of land where a particular sub-group of Yankunytjatjara people (anthropologists call this an ‘estate group’) live. 2. What Does Uluru Mean? Uluru is first and foremost a place name. It does not have any specific meaning, although it may have some connection to the Yankunytjatjara words for ‘crying’ and ‘shadows’. As I really wanted to know what the word meant, I asked Senior Traditional owners, Reggie and Cassidy Uluru and well known Alice Springs historian, Richard (Dick) Kimber, about the meaning of Uluru. After a few ignorant comments on this post, I then asked several Yankunytjatjara people who are highly skilled language interpreters about the meaning as well.

They all told me that Uluru was the name of the place, and that it had no specific meaning. I also read through the writings of Charles Mountford, one of the first anthropologists to live and work with Yankunytjatjara and Luritja people, and the books of Bill Harney (the first ranger at Ayers Rock). I consulted the anthropological work of Robert Lawton, who worked on land claims in the area during the 1970s. Mountford worked with Aboriginal people at Ayers Rock in the 1930s and 1940s. He records that Uluru is both the name of a Dreaming ancestor, a snake, AND the name of a rockhole that is a Men’s Sacred site located on top of the Rock. Traditionally, only initiated senior men could climb the Rock and visit this special site (this fact is often hidden from public knowledge, but is there in historical and anthropological records for anyone to discover.) Bill Harney arrived at Uluru in the late 1950s. He was told by the Aboriginal custodians of Uluru that it was a place name.

Robert Lawton was the anthropologist who interviewed all of the old people for the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park Land Claim. He also established that Uluru was a place name. After doing this research and asking expert people, the evidence suggested that the Aboriginal name for Ayers Rock, Uluru, is indeed a place name with no specific meaning. Aboriginal people felt that the connection to ‘crying’ or ‘wailing’ was actually associated with ‘Yulara’, which is the name of the township where Ayers Rock Resort is located. There are several named places on the south western side of the Rock (near the Park HQ) which refer to shade or shadows. (The ‘ul-‘ sound refers to shade or shadow in several Central Australian Aboriginal languages ). There may be some connection of the word ‘Uluru’ to shadows or shade, however, the Aboriginal men I spoke with did not suggest this. So we can conclude that just as Niagara Falls is the name of a place, or London or the Amazon River, so too is Uluru. It does not mean ‘Earth Mother’. It does not mean ‘big rock’. It does not mean ‘island mountain’.

(This is an error lifted from a description on a topographical map!) It does not mean ‘Rainbow Dreaming’ or ‘Heart Chakra Dreaming’ or any other New Age nonsense. If you are using my page as a source for your own webpages, please make sure that you don’t promote any of the myths about Uluru’s name. Feel free to use this information, knowing that it is the real truth. 3. One Rock, but Many Names and Places Another thing that’s useful to know is that there not just one Aboriginal name for Ayers Rock, but that Aboriginal people have named many of the individual features of Uluru, such as caves and waterholes, as well. For example, all of the caves, valleys, waterholes and even a particular place right on the top of Ayers Rock have specific names. Many of these named places on Uluru are sacred sites. Although Yankunytjatjara and Pitjantjatjara people consider all of Ayers Rock to be spiritually significant, they strongly distinguish between sacred sites and the rest of the Rock. The photo below is a satellite photo, and I’ve labelled all of the places names and sacred sites around the Rock.

It’s important for visitors to understand the distinction between a place name and a sacred site. All Aboriginal people in Central Australia have a word in their languages that means ‘sacred site’. To an Aboriginal person, when a place is deemed as a sacred site, there are often restrictions on who can visit, when they may visit and the rituals and songs they need to know to visit such places. This means that some places on Ayers Rock may only be seen by initiated men, or by Aboriginal women. Places become sacred sites because Dreamtime beings travelled through, or performed some action, at that particular place and are still considered to be there, performing that action. Although Aboriginal people acknowledge that non-Aboriginal people want to visit their sacred places (and in Central Australia, most of the ‘top’ destinations are sacred sites), there are some places which they request that people stay away from. This is why that Aboriginal people at Ayers Rock request that visitors don’t climb the Rock, and in some places, request that photographs aren’t taken. So you can see that the Aboriginal name for Ayers Rock is at first glance, just a place name.

However, Uluru has not just one named place, but many and these are often of great spiritual importance to Aboriginal people. Please Read This: Even after furnishing all of this evidence, we still receive comments and emails from people who do not accept that Uluru has no special meaning. We have recently had someone insist that an unnamed ‘elder’ at Uluru told her that the name meant ‘island mountain’. This person refused to believe not only the anthropological and historical evidence, but the evidence given by Aboriginal Elders with whom we have worked over a long period of time. This is deeply insulting, ignorant and ethnocentric. So, all we ask is that if you do not believe what is written here, that you seek out the original sources mentioned above. If you are very lucky, you may be able to speak with some of the true Elders at Uluru (they will NOT be tour guides or rangers – they are now all very old people in their late 70s and 80s). Lastly, if you’ve found this page interesting and useful, please share it via Twitter, Facebook or Google+. How did Uluru form?

› Ask an Expert (ABC Science) ^ to top The Amadeus Basin After this period of rapid mountain building and erosion the centre of Australia turned into an inland sea — a tropical seaway went through Central Australia and out through the Kimberley — and a phase of deposition began in what's now known as the Amadeus Basin. "There was limestone and sand and mud deposited in the Amadeus Basin and that buried the arkose and conglomerate that eventually formed Uluru and Kata Tjuta," says Bradshaw. At around 400 million years ago the sands and gravels of Uluru and Kata Tjuta were so far down that they were well lithified or knitted together, changing from sediment into rock. Another mountain-building event — the Alice Springs Orogeny — began around this time, folding the rock and further compressing them. "What that does is really push down and fold the rocks that become Uluru and Kata Tjuta." Over millions of years the Alice Springs Orogeny created the great big folds that are visible when you fly over Central Australia today, and in the process further folded and turned the rocks that make up Uluru and Kata Tjuta.

^ to top Uluru is special "What I think is interesting," says Bradshaw, "is that the original sediments that formed Uluru and Kata Tjuta were special in their own way — because they were coming right off a big mountain range." "And then the deformation of it was also special. It's really welded together as a rock." The deformation flipped the sediments on their side so that the originally horizontal layers of sand and gravel (the 'bedding planes') are now vertical. And the rock is incredibly hard. "You would expect Uluru to start breaking up along the bedding planes, which are now vertical, but it doesn't, so it's really been welded together well." The rock that sticks up now as Uluru was probably in a tight fold, says Bradshaw, and that may be why the rock itself is so hard, resistant and homogenous. "The apex of the fold is where the pressure is highest and that's where the fluids that solidify and stick it together are concentrated." After a long phase of erosion that lasted hundreds of million of years, Uluru and Kata Tjuta eventually emerged from the softer rocks.

"And it stands together as a really coherent and welded together rock that has been etched and polished over tens of millions of years to be the beautiful Uluru that we see now." ^ to top Why is the rock red? The red colour of Uluru is due to the oxidisation or the rusting of the iron-bearing minerals within the rock as it has sat there in the desert air for hundreds of thousands of years, says Bradshaw. "The fresh rock which has not been in contact with the atmosphere is grey in colour," she adds. Dr Marita Bradshaw is a senior geologist with Geosciences Australia. She was interviewed by Kylie Andrews. THE MYSTERIES OF AYERS ROCK - NYTimes.com THE MYSTERIES OF AYERS ROCK By THOMAS KENEALLY; Thomas Keneally's new novel is ''A Family Madness'' (Simon & Schuster). Published: March 16, 1986 Australians have a habit of calling it simply The Rock. It becomes clear after a time what rock they are talking about - the vast single stone, larger than an island, that lies at Australia's heart and that until recent times was as infrequently visited by Europeans as Timbuktu or the South Pole.

Since the late 19th century it has borne the name Ayers Rock, but for the Pitjantjatjara tribespeople and their kinsmen in the Great Western Desert it has another name, Uluru, a name of towering antiquity, a name from before the ice ages. The Rock is what geologists call an inselberg, and its basically red conglomerate stone changes appearance from the rich pink of dawn to orange at noon to a radiant ocher at sunset. But that is the least of its enchantments. There are myths and magic embodied in Uluru, and mysteries written across its face. The Rock and its surrounding desert, oddly spectacular as they are, will reward most those who are susceptible to mystery in the strictest sense, mystery as it occurred in the body of ancient ritual deriving from Tjukurapa, the Dreamtime - before which, in the aboriginal view, the earth did not exist. Ayers Rock lies close enough to the geographic center of Australia to make it the supreme symbol of that hinterland known as the Outback. In a continent as large as the continental United States, it is therefore a suitable objective for a traveler, being a vast and satisfying node to behold.

It has always been my fancy to think of it as a kind of continental navel, the point at which the aboriginal demigods, the ancestor-heroes, half human and half animal, cut the umbilical cord connecting earth to heaven. Any traveler will certainly fall prey to similar fable-making there, by the red-orange bulk of Ayers Rock, under an immense sky of electric blue. That is an extraordinary aspect of the Rock. You can stand in Yosemite and, despite its magnitude and its splendor, know that it is all a geological wonder wrought by glaciers. But you cannot stand by Uluru without feeling it is the greatest of mythic beasts, without becoming in this desert place a brother to Ahab on the flanks of Leviathan. The Rock is now just past the first flush of its accessibility to outsiders.

It lies in the Northern Territory, some 200 miles southwest of Alice Springs, the model for Nevil Shute's novel ''A Town Like Alice.'' Until the building of a reliable airport and the arrival of four-wheel-drive transport, the only certain line of communication between Alice and the remoter regions was provided by camel trains managed by Afghan drivers, the last of whom you can still find living out retirements on the front verandas of their bungalows in town. The early vehicles that took visitors west from Alice depended on matting, which the passengers would lay across the sandy patches encountered on the way from one sizable cattle station or ranch to another, and so on to the center, the Rock. In the Northern Territory the term ''sizable cattle station'' is no hyperbole. Average stations are well over 1,000 square miles in extent. Angas Downs and Curtin Springs, situated between Alice and the Rock, each cover about 3,000 square miles. Any traveler fortunate enough to talk his way onto one of the larger cattle stations and stay as a guest will find a remarkable way of life flourishing there.

He will encounter a community of aboriginal and white stockmen (the Australian word for cowboys), bookkeepers, mechanics and cooks, even a station schoolteacher. He will observe those tall, calm, nerveless beings Australians call aerial musterers, who round up cattle in helicopters or fixed-wing aircraft, working with doors off and so close to the ground that the altimeter or the eye can hardly tell they're airborne. At the core of the station community stand the cattleman and his wife, living the sort of life that has always reminded me of the knockabout puissance of the medieval nobility, their mental habits those of any frontier people, bristling with mistrust of all those who live in cities. If you are just passing through, the roadhouses at Angas Downs and Curtin Springs will give you the chance to see the working of enormous mobs of cattle and are one reason the traveler should approach the Rock overland, through that country of spinifex and scrub. Having arrived at the Rock, you can go strolling in the desert with one of the members of the Mutitjulu community, a group of Pitjantjatjara and Yankuntjatjara tribespeople who live in the rock's shadow.

I once took such a stroll with an elder of the Yankuntjatjara tribe called Toby Naninga, an aging man who has since died and whose spirit, in tribal belief, has returned to its place of origin, to the northeast, near Angas Downs. At the time of the excursion, a photographer and I were in pursuit of a wide-angle photograph of the area for a book we were putting together. As the photographer fussed at his tripod, the old man introduced me to the nectar that drips from the fronds of the grevillea bush, to edible tubers just below the red sand, to the insect galls on mulga wood underbrush, the interiors of which had a gamy sweetness. Toby could find wood grubs and the protein-rich witchety grub. He knew, with the experience of millenniums passed on to him as a child, at the base of which shrubs his hero ancestors had hidden the water. 1 Uluru | Define Uluru at Dictionary.com Uluru noun 1. a large isolated desert rock, sometimes described as the world's largest monolith, in the Northern Territory of Australia: sacred to local Aboriginal people.

Height: 330m (1100 ft). Base circumference: 9 km (5.6 miles) Also called Ayers Rock Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012 Examples from the Web for uluru Expand Contemporary Examples The couple will leave George in Canberra to travel to uluru, or Ayers Rock, in the Outback. Ayers Rock, Uluru - Crystalinks Ayers Rock Ayers Rock is also known by its Aboriginal name 'Uluru'. It is a sacred part of Aboriginal creation mythology, or dreamtime - reality being a dream. Uluru is considered one of the great wonders of the world and one of Australia's most recognizable natural icons. Uluru is a large magnetic mound large not unlike Silbury Hill in England. It is located on a major planetary grid point much like the Great Pyramid in Egypt.

Ayers Rock is a large sandstone rock formation in central Australia, in the Northern Territory. It is located in Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, 350 km southwest of Alice Springs at 25 degrees 20' 41" S 131 degrees 01' 57" E. It is the second-largest monolith in the world (after Mount Augustus, also in Australia), more than 318 m (986 ft) high and 8 km (5 miles) around. It also extends 2.5 km (1.5 miles) into the ground. It was described by explorer Ernest Giles in 1872 as "the remarkable pebble".' Uluru is an inselberg, literally "island mountain", an isolated remnant left after the slow erosion of an original mountain range. Uluru is also often referred to as a monolith, although this is a somewhat ambiguous term because of its multiple meanings, and thus a word generally avoided by geologists. The remarkable feature of Uluru is its homogeneity and lack of jointing and parting at bedding surfaces, leading to the lack of development of scree slopes and soil.

These characteristics led to its survival, while the surrounding rocks were eroded. For the purpose of mapping and describing the geological history of the area, geologists refer to the rock strata making up Uluru as the Mutitjulu Arkose, and it is one of many sedimentary formations filling the Amadeus Basin. Close Up Rain Age and Origin The Mutitjulu Arkose is believed to be of about the same age as the conglomerate at Kata Tjuta, and to have a similar origin despite the rock type being different, but it is younger than the rocks exposed to the east at Mount Conner, and unrelated to them. The strata at Uluru are nearly vertical, dipping to the south west at 85 degrees, and have an exposed thickness of at least 2,400 m (7,900 ft). The strata dip below the surrounding plain and no doubt extend well beyond Uluru in the subsurface, but the extent is not known.

The rock was originally sand, deposited as part of an extensive alluvial fan that extended out from the ancestors of the Musgrave, Mann and Petermann Ranges to the south and west, but separate from a nearby fan that deposited the sand, pebbles and cobbles that now make up Kata Tjuta. The similar mineral composition of the Mutitjulu Arkose and the granite ranges to the south is now explained. The ancestors of the ranges to the south were once much larger than the eroded remnants we see today. They were thrust up during a mountain building episode referred to as the Petermann Orogeny that took place in late Neoproterozoic to early Cambrian times (550-530 Ma), and thus the Mutitjulu Arkose is believed to have been deposited at about the same time. The arkose sandstone which makes up the formation is composed of grains that show little sorting based on grain size, exhibit very little rounding and the feldspars in the rock are relatively fresh in appearance. This lack of sorting and grain rounding is typical of arkosic sandstones and is indicative of relatively rapid erosion from the granites of the growing mountains to the south.

The layers of sand were nearly horizontal when deposited, but were later tilted to their near vertical position during a later episode of mountain building, possibly the Alice Springs Orogeny of Palaeozoic age (400-300 Ma). Despite current estimates of the age of the geological formations that comprise Uluru, however, the arkose sandstone which makes up the formation is composed of grains that are many different sizes and are jagged, and the feldspars in the rock are fresh and shiny. Flood geologists argue that this indicates a comparatively fast deposit, on the order of only a few years or less. They state that if the arkose grains had been transported more slowly they would be more rounded and evenly sorted, and the feldspars would have turned to clay in the intervening years. History Archaeological findings to the east and west indicate that humans settled in the area more than 10,000 years ago. Europeans arrived in the Australian Western Desert in the 1870s. Uluru and Kata Tjuta were first mapped by Europeans in 1872 during the expeditionary period made possible by the construction of the Australian Overland Telegraph Line.

In separate expeditions, Ernest Giles and William Gosse were the first European explorers to this area. While exploring the area in 1872, Giles sighted Kata Tjuta from a location near Kings Canyon and called it Mount Olga, while the following year Gosse observed Uluru and named it Ayers Rock. Further explorations followed with the aim of establishing the possibilities of the area for pastoralism. In the late 1800s, pastoralists attempted to establish themselves in areas adjoining the South western/Petermann Reserve and interaction between Anangu and white people became more frequent and more violent. Due to the effects of grazing and drought, bush food stores became depleted. Competition for these resources created conflict between the two groups, resulting in more frequent police patrols. Later, during the depression in the 1930s, Anangu became involved in dingo scalping with 'doggers' who introduced Anangu to European foods and ways. Between 1918 and 1921, large adjoining areas of South Australia, Western Australia and Northern Territory were declared as Aboriginal reserves, sanctuaries for nomadic people who had virtually no contact with European settlers.

In 1920, part of Uluru - Kata Tjuta National Park was declared an Aboriginal Reserve (commonly known as the South-Western or Petermann Reserve) by the Australian government under the Aboriginals Ordinance. The first tourists arrived in the Uluru area in 1936. Beginning in the 1940s, permanent European settlement of the area for reasons of the Aboriginal welfare policy and to help promote tourism of Uluru. This increased tourism prompted the formation of the first vehicular tracks in 1948 and tour bus services began early in the following decade. In 1958, the area that would become the Uluru - Kata Tjuta National Park was excised from the Petermann Reserve; it was placed under the management of the Northern Territory Reserves Board and named the Ayers Rock - Mount Olga National Park. The first ranger was Bill Harney, a well-recognised central Australian figure. By 1959, the first motel leases had been granted and Eddie Connellan had constructed an airstrip close to the northern side of Uluru.

On 26 October 1985, the Australian government returned ownership of Uluru to the local Pitjantjatjara Aborigines, with one of the conditions being that the Anangu would lease it back to the National Parks and Wildlife agency for 99 years and that it would be jointly managed. The Aboriginal community of Mutitjulu, population of approximately 300, is located near the western end of Uluru. From Uluru it is 17 km (11 mi) by road to the tourist town of Yulara, population 3,000, which is situated just outside of the national park. Kata Tjuta National Park is owned and run by the local Aboriginals. The Australian government handed ownership of the land back to the Aboriginals some years ago. Uluru has many caves, some decorated with rock art depicting Dreamtime myths dating back thousands of years. The Caves The caves in Uluru can be both engaging and enlightening. To truly experience the power of Ayers Rock, your journey should be more than a few hours. Take your time to absorb the history of the springs, caves, and ancient paintings throughout the formation and don't worry about running your business .

The first Aboriginal settlers arrived there more than 10,000 years ago and created a historical journey that would be difficult to transverse overnight so the recommendation for any tourists traveling to the formation has always been to allow more time to absorb the area without being distracted. Mount Urulu Turned Violet Uluru went from red to violet on June 1, 2004, waterfalls on the rocks causing the color change. Ayers Rock was named for the Premier of South Australia, Sir Henry Ayers. It extends down over 3 and a half miles beneath the surface. Approximately 500 million years ago it was part of the ocean floor at the center of Australia. Some report that there is a light source emanating at various times of the year. Most likely this can be explained scientifically. The Aborigines believe that there it is hollow below ground, and that there is an energy source that they call 'Tjukurpa' the dream time. The term Tjukurpa is also used to refer to the record of all activities of a particular ancestral being from the very beginning of his or her travels to their end.

Anangu know that the area around Ayers Rock (Mount Uluru) is inhabited by dozens of ancestral 'beings' whose activities are recorded at many other sites. At each site, the events that took place can be recounted, whether those events were of significance or whether the ancestral being just rested at a certain place before going on. Usually, there is a physical feature of some form at each ancestral site which represents both the activities of the ancestral being at the time of its formation and the living presence of Tjukurpa within that physical feature today. For the Australian Aboriginal people, that physical feature, whatever its form or appearance, animate or inanimate, is the Tjukurpa. It may be a rock, a sand hill, a grove of trees, a cave. For all of these, the creative essence remains forever within the physical form or appearance. Around Mount Uluru there are many examples of ancestral sites. The Anangu explanations of these sites and of the formation of Mount Uluru itself derive from the Tjukurpa. Most of these explanations are in the realm of secret information and are not disclosed to Piranypa, the non-Aborigines.

'The Dreaming' is not a creation myth, per se, but a myth of formation. The world existed, but was featureless. Giant semi-human beings, resembling plants or animals, rose up from the plains where they had been slumbering for countless ages. These ancient heroes roamed the land aimlessly. As they wandered around, they carried out the tasks that the present Aborigines do today including camping, making fires, digging for water, fighting each other, and performing ceremonies. When the heroes became tired of doing these things, Dreamtime came to an end. Wherever the creators had been active, some form of natural feature now marks the place. The creators made everything with which the aborigines are in daily contact and from which they gain their living. The heroes also established laws that govern all aspects, both secular and sacred, of the tribes. Dreamtime was in the past, but it is the Aborigines present religion and culture. The saying, 'As it was done in the Dreamtime, so it must be done today,' dominates all aspects of aboriginal behavior. Because of their beliefs in 'the dreaming,' ceremonies and rituals are held, stories are told, pictures are drawn, and daily life is defined.

In order to understand the religion of the Aborigines, one must have a basic understanding of the organization of the tribes. All men and women belong to small groups, called clans. Each clan posses a distinct body of spiritual properties, or sacred sites. A clan may have several sacred sites that they claim, and the area surrounded by the connection of these sites forms the clan's estate. Clans are linked by common religious traditions, intermarriage, shared dialects, and overlapping foraging rights. Stone monument made by the heroic ancestors Clans people of the crow believe they are descended from the Dreamtime's crow spirit who became a man. Each clan has a totem. 'Totemism is a view of nature and life, of the universe and man, which colors and influences the Aborigines' social groupings and mythologies, inspires their rituals and links them to the past. It unites them with nature's activities and species in a bond of mutual life-giving, and imparts confidence amidst the vicissitudes of life'. The totem provides a tangible expression of a man's relationship to his deities. Everything in the Aboriginal world contains an essence or spirit that had its beginnings in the Dreamtime.

Each person descended from one of these spirits and possessed some of its life force. The spirit it descended from is the person's totem. Images of totems make-up a large part of Aboriginal art. They were painted on cave walls, which we title rock art, drawn on the interiors of their huts, drawn on their bodies, and carved in wood. Totemic spirits are celebrated in ceremonies and rituals, and played a prominent part in Aboriginal myth. Myths, Legends and Aboriginal Traditions According to the Anangu traditional landowners of Uluru: "The world was once a featureless place. None of the places we know existed until creator beings, in the forms of people, plants and animals, traveled widely across the land. Then, in a process of creation and destruction, they formed the landscape as we know it today. Anangu land is still inhabited by the spirits of dozens of these ancestral creator beings which are referred to as Tjukuritja or Waparitja." There are a number of unauthenticated accounts of the Aboriginal ancestral stories for the origins of Uluru and its many cracks and fissures.

One such account, taken from Robert Layton's (1989) ULURU: An Aboriginal history of Ayers Rock, reads as follows: "Uluru (Ayers Rock) was built up during the creation period by two boys who played in the mud after rain. When they had finished their game they travelled south to Wiputa ..Fighting together, the two boys made their way to the table topped Mount Conner, on top of which their bodies are preserved as boulders" (Page 5) Two other accounts are given in Norbert Brockman's (1997) Encyclopedia of Sacred Places. The first tells of serpent beings who waged many wars around Uluru, scarring the rock. The second tells of two tribes of ancestral spirits who were invited to a feast, but were distracted by the beautiful Sleepy Lizard Women and did not show up. In response, the angry hosts sang evil into a mud sculpture that came to life as the dingo. There followed a great battle, which ended in the deaths of the leaders of both tribes. The earth itself rose up in grief at the bloodshed, becoming Uluru. The Commwealth Department of Environment's webpage advises: "Many ..

Tjukurpa such as Kalaya (Emu), Liru (poisonous snake), Lungkata (blue tongue lizard), Luunpa (kingfisher) and Tjintir-tjintirpa (willie wagtail) travel through Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. Other Tjukurpa affect only one specific area. "Kuniya, the woma python, lived in the rocks at Uluru where she fought the Liru, the poisonous snake." It is sometimes reported that those who take rocks from the formation will be cursed and suffer misfortune. There have been many instances where people who removed such rocks attempted to mail them back to various agencies in an attempt to remove the perceived curse. In the News ... Flooding rains bring rare waterfalls to Australia's Uluru AFP - January 16, 2010 Heavy rains which flooded parts of Australia's vast desert centre have brought rare waterfalls spilling from the iconic monolith Uluru, or Ayers Rocks, officials said Saturday.

The deluge, which swept across much of the continent's east after a tropical cyclone last month, prompted a wave of green in the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, home to the giant red rock. Uluru typically receives little more than 12 inches of rain a year, and January is its hottest, driest month, with temperatures topping to 45 degrees Celsius (113 F). Fireball at Ayers Rock NASA - June 28, 2008 A weekend trip for astrophotography in central Australia can result in gorgeous skyscapes. In this example recorded in March of 2006, the center of our Milky Way Galaxy rises over planet Earth's horizon and the large sandstone formation called Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock. After setting up two cameras to automatically image this celestial scene in a series of exposures, one through a wide-angle and the other through a telephoto lens, photographer Joseph Brimacombe briefly turned his back to set up other equipment. To his surprise, the ground around him suddenly lit up with the brilliant flash of a fireball meteor. To his delight, both cameras captured the bright meteor streak.

Highlighted in the telephoto view (inset), the fireball trail shines through cloud banks, just left of Ayers Rock. Satellite Photo [Click and Drag] Face Book: Ben's Journey to Kaja Kutja - Journey into the the Valley of the Winds About Uluru - Uluru (Ayers Rock) Australia About Uluru - Uluru (Ayers Rock) Australia Longitude 131 About Uluru What is Uluru? Uluru is a huge chunk of rock, known as a monolith, set the middle of Australia. Although there is a similar rock in Western Australia, as well as the nearby Kata Tjuta, World Heritage site Uluru is unique in its composition and attracts thousands of tourists a year. What is Uluru to the Aborigines, who consider it sacred, is better known as Ayers Rock to most. The native islanders have been in the area for thousands of years, but the rock is now contained within the aptly named Uluru National Park, which is overseen by the Anangu and Australian government. The park lies 463kms by road southwest of Alice Springs. What is Uluru made of? What is Uluru made of?

The 300 million-year-old rock is comprised of sand, feldspar (various crystalline minerals) and rock, and originally hailed from a sea floor. A large chunk is above ground today (348m), and the flat top and grooved sides are a result of weathering. Uluru was ‘discovered’ by William Gosse in the 1800s, who named it after the Chief Secretary to South Australia, Henry Ayers. As well as climbing up the side of Uluru, it is possible to walk around it (about 10kms by path). There are also several noted caves in the flanks, although parts are off-limits as they are particularly sacred to the natives. There are also dozens of birds and mammals in the area which visitors will usually see on a tour of the rock. People typically watch the sunset from the viewing spot to the west, while there is another in the east for the sunrise. The town of Yulara, just north of the national park, provides facilities and accommodation for tourists, as there are none within the park itself. Most people arrive by bus from Alice Springs, but there’s also an airstrip nearby.

Map of Australia's Red Centre Uluru / Ayers Rock Uluru (Ayers Rock) & Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) Uluru (Ayers Rock) & Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) Uluru (Ayers Rock) with Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) in the distance, Australia ( Enlarge ) Throughout the ages many cultures have conceived of geographic space and expressed those conceptions in a variety of ways. One expression of these conceptions has been the establishment of sacred geographies. Sacred geography may be broadly defined as the regional (and even global) geographic locating of sacred places according to various mythological, symbolic, astrological, geodesical, and shamanic factors. Perhaps the oldest form of sacred geography, and one that has its genesis in mythology, is that of the aborigines of Australia. According to Aboriginal legends, in the mythic period of the beginning of the world known as Alcheringa - the Dreamtime - ancestral beings in the form of totemic animals and humans emerged from the interior of the Earth and began to wander over the land.

As these Dreamtime ancestors roamed the Earth they created features of the landscape through such everyday actions as birth, play, singing, fishing, hunting, marriage, and death. At the end of the Dreamtime, these features hardened into stone, and the bodies of the ancestors turned into hills, boulders, caves, lakes, and other distinctive landforms. These places, such as Uluru (Ayers Rock) and Kata Tjuta (the Olgas Mountains) became sacred sites. The paths the totemic ancestors had trod across the landscape became known as Dreaming Tracks, or Songlines, and they connected the sacred places of power. The mythological wanderings of the ancestors thus gave to the aborigines a sacred geography, a pilgrimage tradition, and a nomadic way of life. For more than forty thousand years - making it the oldest continuing culture in the world - the Aborigines followed the Dreaming tracks of their ancestors. During the course of the yearly cycle various Aboriginal tribes would make journeys, called walkabouts, along the songlines of various totemic spirits, returning year after year to the same traditional routes.

As people trod these ancient pilgrimage routes they sang songs that told the myths of the Dreamtime and gave travel directions across the vast deserts to other sacred places along the songlines. At the totemic sacred sites, where dwelt the mythical beings of the Dreamtime, the aborigines performed various rituals to invoke the kurunba, or spirit power of the place. This power could be used for the benefit of the tribe, the totemic spirits of the tribe, and the health of the surrounding lands. For the aborigines, walkabouts along the songlines of their sacred geography were a way to support and regenerate the spirits of the living Earth, and also a way to experience a living memory of their ancestral Dreamtime heritage. Uluru, Australia ( Enlarge ) Located in the center of Australia, the massive rock formations of Uluru (Ayers Rock) and Kata Tjuta (the Olgas) are the most prominent and well known sacred sites of the Aboriginal people. Rising 346 meters high, with a circumference of 9.4 kilometers and covering an area of 3.33 square kilometers, Uluru is the single largest rock outcropping all of Australia.

Uluru is often referred to as a monolith, and for many years was listed in record books as the world’s largest monolith. That description, however, is inaccurate, as Uluru is part of a much larger underground rock formation which includes Kata Tjuta. The world’s largest monolith is actually Burringurrah (Mt Augustus) in Western Australia, which is more than 2.5 times the size of Uluru, stands 858 metres above the ground and covers and area of 48 square kilometers. In various tourist guidebooks it is said that 2/3 of Ayers Rock is beneath the surrounding land but this is not the case according to the science of geology, which explains that Uluru is only the exposed tip of a much greater mass of rock extending far below the surrounding plain as an integral part of the earth’s crust. Separated from one another by approximately 50 kilometers, Uluru and Kata Tjuta are situated along a straight line passing onto another holy peak known as Mount Conner. Geologists disagree about the origins of Uluru and Kata Tjuta.

The most widely held theory is that both rocks are the remnants of a vast sedimentary bed laid down some 600 million years ago. Over eons of time the bed was raised and folded by movements of the earth’s crust, formed into a mountain range, and then slowly eroded leaving the towering rocks behind. The sandstone rock of Uluru is actually gray but is covered with a distinctive red iron oxide coating, while the thirty-six domes of Kata Tjuta are a harder type of granite composed of quartz and feldspar. The origins of the cave-like depressions on both outcroppings, especially those of Uluru, are the subject of debate among geologists but the most commonly held view is that the rock surfaces had been partly eroded and enlarged to form the depressions. The beginning of Aboriginal settlement in the Uluru region has not been determined, but archaeological findings to the east and west indicate a date more than 10,000 years ago, though some scholars estimate that human settlement in the region may actually date to 22,000 years ago. According to Aboriginal myths, Uluru and Kata Tjuta provide physical evidence of feats performed during the Dreamtime creation period.

The aboriginal tribe of Anangu are the direct descendants of these beings and are responsible for the protection and appropriate management of these ancestral lands. The knowledge necessary to fulfill these responsibilities has been passed down from generation to generation. To the Pitjantjatjara, Yankunytjatjara and Anangu tribes Uluru represents the living core of their belief. No other place in Australia is so rich in mythology, song-lines and stories, or so associated with events from the Alcheringa or Dreaming. In the language of the local Aborigines. ‘Uluru' is simply a local family name that is applied to both the rock and the waterhole on top of the rock. The thirty-six rounded rocks of Kata Tjuta (meaning ‘Many Headed Mountain’), are located in the same National Park as Uluru and the tallest rock, Mt. Olga at 546 meters is about 200 meters higher than Uluru. Kata Tjuta is much less visited by tourists that Uluru and therefore has a more peaceful feeling.

Uluru, Australia ( Enlarge ) By Aboriginal tradition only certain elderly males may climb the rock but despite this tradition the Australian government allows tourists to make the climb using a metal chain installed in 1964. Over the years there have been at least forty deaths, mainly due to heart failure while climbing Uluru, and several people have plumetted to their death while climbing. The Anangu tribe also request that visitors do not photograph certain sections of Uluru, mostly gender-related sacred places, for reasons related to traditional beliefs. This photographic ban is intended to prevent Anangu Aborigines from inadvertently violating this taboo by encountering photographs of the forbidden sites. The first sighting of Kata Tjuta by a European was in July of 1872, when Ernest Giles was exploring the country some 100 kilometers to the northeast. Giles progress towards Kata Tjuta was barred by a large lake. He later named the lake and the Kata Tjuta rocks after the then King and Queen of Spain: Amadeus and Olga.

Giles returned to explore the area again in 1873 but was beaten to Uluru by William Gosse who sighted the monolith on July 19 and named it after the Chief Secretary of South Australia, Sir Henry Ayers. Giles also was the first European to climb the rock which he did accompanied by an Afghan camel driver. The inhospitable nature of the terrain ensured that few whites were to venture into the region. Farmers were defeated by the lack of water and the only whites to pass through the area were trappers, miners and the occasional missionary. The area was declared an Aboriginal Reserve in 1920 and this existed until the 1940s when road access, the possibility of gold in the area, and the tourist potential of Uluru, showed how fragile the original reserve had been. Ayers Rock was created a national park in 1950 and in 1958 was combined with the Olgas to form the Ayers Rock National Park. In 1959 a motel lease was granted near the rock and soon after an airstrip was built.

By the 1970s, Ayers Rock and Mount Olga had become the most famous stop on the outback tourist circuit. In 1976 the Commonwealth Government set up the lease at Yulara (a resort complex and service village located 20 km from the base of Uluru) and in 1983 the old tourist facilities near the rock were closed down. In 1985 the title to Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park was returned to the local Pitjantjatjara Aborigines who, in turn, granted the Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service a 99 year lease on the park. Today the Park is jointly managed under direction of a Board of Management that includes a majority of Anangu traditional owners. The Aboriginal community of Mutitjulu is near the western end of Uluru. In 1995, in acknowledgement of Anangu ownership and their relationship with the area, the name of the park was changed from Ayers Rock-Mount Olga to Uluru-Kata Tjuta, its traditional name. Uluru is listed as a World Heritage Area for its natural and man-made attributes.

Another Side of Uluru Another Side of Uluru Dec 13 Mala Walk to Kantju Gorge, Uluru Having watched a stunning sunset when I first laid eyes on Uluru , followed by a superb sunrise viewed from the south side; experienced my first up-close encounter on the Kuniya Walk (where I discovered there are waterholes at Uluru ), we made our way back around to the north side where we joined a Ranger taking a (free) guided walk along the Mala track to Kantju Gorge. “The Mala people came from the north and could see Uluru. It looked like a good place to stay a while and make inma (ceremony). Men raised Ngaltawata (ceremonial pole) – the inma had begun.” The Mala path is rich in traditional cultural sites, including a select few areas where no photography is permitted. Where rock details and features are equivalent to a sacred scripture describing culturally important information, they must be viewed only in their original location – It being inappropriate for their images to be viewed anywhere else other than at that site.

The walk passes overhangs and cave like rock formations that offered shelter to the Mala people, ancestors to the Anangu (prounounced arn-ung-oo) people, traditional owners of the area. The Ranger had examples with her of a piti (wooden gathering bowl) and a manguri (head ring) for balancing and carrying the bowl on one’s head. She described the Mala people’s cultural way of life, how they made tools with malu pulku (kangaroo sinew) and kiti (spinifex resin), and she explained the rock art imagery represented on the cave walls. Close to the ground of this cave wall one can see a circle with concentric rings. This represents a permanent water site (Uluru). The circle above it with no inner circles is an area of no permanent water supply and in this case represents Kata Tjuta. Whilst when we visited Kata Tjuta (later in the day) there was water present, it is not a supply that can be relied upon during drought. Members of the Mala community performed their respective tasks in groups defined by gender and age.

We saw a cave where the ceiling was blackened by soot from endless years of camp fires tended by the elders. Areas where the young girls were taught and areas where the young men were initiated. We saw the Kitchen Cave where minymas (women), kungkas (girls) and small children would have camped. “The minymas (women) would go out into the bush to collect mai (bush foods) and return to the cave to process them.” Here you could see rocks smoothed from grinding seeds into a flour, which when mixed with water and cooked on hot coals produced a nyuma (flat bread). Food was brought to this area to share. Men hunted for the kuka (meat) and women gathered nyuma, fruit, seeds and roots. Collectively prepared it was then distributed to family camps, the old people’s cave and to the nyiinka (bush boys) camp In the senior Mala men’s cave they camped and preparerd for inma (ceremony). “In the middle of preparations. Two Wintalka men from the west approached and invited the Mala people to join their inma in their country.

The Mala people said no, explaining their ceremony had begun and could not be stopped. The disappointed Wintalka men went back and told their people. They summoned up an evil spirit, a huge devil-dog called Kurpany, to destroy the Mala inma. As Kurpany travelled towards Uluru he changed into many forms, from mikara (bark), to tjulpu (bird) and different grasses. He was a mamu ghost. Luurnpa (kingfisher woman) was the first to spot him. She warned the Mala people but they didn’t listen. Kurpany arrived and attacked the men in this cave. Some were killed and they turned to stone. The remaining Mala people fled to the south with Kurpany chasing them.” The faces of those men can still be seen with their white hair and beards on the back wall of this cave ~ The Mala story is set in stone here. The Anangu people have successfully hunted and gathered in this land for generations passing down their stories and celebrating their ceremonies. The route of the climb on Uluru is associated with important Mala ceremonies.

Aboriginal belief is that during the creation period of Tjukurpa (pronounced: chook-orr-pa) Mala men took that route when they arrived at Uluru, so it is a traditional route of spiritual significance. Through education the hope is all will understand and respect their law and culture by not climbing. I took 100’s of photographs of Uluru in a bid to capture its monolithic magnificence in the multitude of hues it turns throughout the day – hazy lilac, plum purple, rusty orange through to its classic redolent Uluru red… But only one photo of Uluru came out black ~ The Climb. There is so much beauty to be experienced at Uluru, is there a need to trample on it? Uluru was initially inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1987 for its outstanding universal natural values, but its outstanding cultural values were added in 1994.

Rising to 348 metres above the plain, it is thought Uluru could reach down to 5 or 6 km below the surface ~ What we see is like the tip of an iceberg 😉 Uluru’s red colour comes from the iron minerals in the rock, which when weathered by water and oxygen, rusts like iron. Uluru is made from a sedimentary rock called arkose sandstone, its apparent soft folds having been smoothed by wind and rain over aeons. But, here at the end of the Mala Walk… are the sheer sides of Kantju Gorge And at the base of the dark algae stain, where rain gathers and tumbles is another precious waterhole. On this day in history: Uluru given its Aboriginal name - Australian Geographic Tweet ON 15 DECEMBER 1993, Uluru became the first icon in Australia to be given back its Aboriginal name, giving birth to a wave of dual-named sites and landmarks across Australia. Uluru was the name given to the landmark by the local Aṉangu people.

British surveyor William Gosse was the first European to 'discover' the monolith – the largest rock of its kind in the world – in 1872, and named it Ayers Rock after the former chief secretary of South Australia, Sir Henry Ayers. "Dual naming leads to better cross-cultural communication as it is one of the windows people can utilise to understand more of another culture's heritage," says Bill Watt, chair of the Committee for Geographic Names Australasia. "For people to have local stories and place names available while travelling in Australia provides more significance to the place names and your understanding of the Aboriginal people's connection with the land," he says. RELATED GALLERY: The many faces of Uluru Island mountain Uluru is an inselberg – literally meaning island mountain – and is what remains of a mountain range largely eroded away. It has a circumference of more than 9km, a height of 350m, and covers 3.3sq.km. "Uluru is unusual because there is an enormous flat plain with some sand dunes, and then there is suddenly this large rock," says Deirdre Dragovich, associate professor at the University of Sydney's School of Geosciences.

It is composed chiefly of a sandstone called arkose, and is believed to have been originally sand that formed a fan-shaped deposit, known as an alluvial fan. The rock rises abruptly, and looks, from a distance, to have a smooth surface. This makes Uluru unique, as most inselbergs have a gradual slope and a cracked and jagged surface, due to the effects of weathering and erosion. RELATED VIDEO: First-ever drone footage of Uluru Uluru an ancient sacred rock The area around Uluru was first settled about 10,000 years ago, and is sacred to the Aṉangu people of Central Australia. In Aṉangu culture, Uluru marks the site of significant events from The Dreaming – when creator beings formed the landscape – and is also the home of their ancestors. Uluru now has wider significance as a symbol for Aboriginal people across Australia. Europeans unsuccessfully attempted to settle the area in the first 60 years after discovering the site. In the 1940s settlers returned and developed a tourism industry around what was then known as Ayers Rock.

More recently, it has become a World Heritage site , with ownership returned to the Aṉangu in 1985 . After dual naming, many tourist attractions at the site now focus on Aṉangu culture, and visitors often take walks around, rather than climbing, the rock. "I've found that personally, when a non-Aboriginal comes to understand the significance of a place to Aboriginals it increases the significance of the place to that person as well, particularly the case if they have an understanding of the story associated with the place," says Bill. "My profound hope, desire and wish is that the number of dual-named place increases, and I believe it certainly will." READ MORE:

Question: What is another name for Uluru?
Answer: Ayers Rock