--- description: Find out why Murujuga Cultural Landscape is on TIME’s list of the World’s Greatest Places 2026. title: Murujuga Cultural Landscape: World's Greatest Places 2026 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt96c08da6e1c14bda/69aed5752c8ca9368514a37b/MurujugaCultural-Landscape_WGP_2026.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Mar 12, 2026 # Murujuga Cultural Landscape Pilbara, Australia by [Michelle Tchea](/author/michelle-tchea/) ## Michelle Tchea Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close  Courtesy Tourism Western Australia Scattered among the heaping red rock hills of the Pilbara lies the world’s densest collection of petroglyphs and megaliths. Older than Stonehenge and the Pyramids of Giza, this extraordinary collection of Indigenous rock carvings—some dating back 50,000 years—earned UNESCO World Heritage status in 2025 after decades of campaigning. [Murujuga Cultural Landscape](https://murujuga.org.au/world-heritage/world-heritage-listing/ "undefined"), within Murujuga National Park, is just the second site in Australia recognized by UNESCO specifically for its Indigenous cultural values. Reaching Murujuga requires commitment—Broome is the nearest city with international flights, followed by a nine-hour drive—but the reward is rare access to sacred terrain. Blanketing more than 1,000 square miles across the Burrup Peninsula and 42 islands of the Dampier Archipelago, originally kept by the Ngarda-Ngarli people, the carvings depict endangered species, extinct animals such as the Tasmanian tiger and flat-tailed kangaroo, and what is believed to be the earliest known depiction of the human face. For Indigenous communities and Australians alike, the art remains a living cultural and spiritual record. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collection/worlds-greatest-places/2026/murujuga-cultural-landscape/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collection/worlds-greatest-places/2026/murujuga-cultural-landscape/"},"headline":"Murujuga Cultural Landscape","datePublished":"2026-03-12T10:56:48.570Z","dateModified":"2026-03-12T10:56:48.645Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collection/worlds-greatest-places/2026/murujuga-cultural-landscape/","keywords":["World's Greatest Places","Australia","list","franchise"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt96c08da6e1c14bda/69aed5752c8ca9368514a37b/MurujugaCultural-Landscape_WGP_2026.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Michelle Tchea","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/michelle-tchea/"}],"creator":"Michelle Tchea","articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt96c08da6e1c14bda/69aed5752c8ca9368514a37b/MurujugaCultural-Landscape_WGP_2026.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/worlds-greatest-places/","name":"World's Greatest Places"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collection/worlds-greatest-places/2026/murujuga-cultural-landscape/","name":"Murujuga Cultural Landscape"}}]}] ```