It contains Neolithic pictographs (rock painting images) and is named due to the depictions of people with their limbs bent as if they were swimming.

[1] They are estimated to have been created as early as 10,000 years ago with the beginning of the African Humid Period, when the Sahara was significantly greener and wetter than it is today.

In 2007, Eman Ghoneim discovered an ancient mega-lake (30,750 km²) buried beneath the sand of the Great Sahara in the Northern Darfur region, Sudan.

[4] Physical scientists who have been conducting research in the area drew a provisional link between the proposed swimming humans and two lakes that are 124 miles (or 200 km) south of the rock shelter.

[citation needed] Substantial portions of the rock shelter have been irreversibly damaged by visitors over the years, especially since the film was released in 1996.