The caves in the Maros-Pangkep karst or Leang-Leang Caves (from the Makassarese word for "many caves") are located in Maros Regency, South Sulawesi, Indonesia, roughly one hour north of Makassar city. The village of Leang-Leang lies in a limestone karst region densely packed with caves that contain paintings from the Paleolithic considered to be the earliest figurative art in the world, dated to at least 45,500 years ago.
Archaeological excavations have revealed evidence of human presence in several of these caves dating back approximately 5,000 years (circa 3000 BCE), predating the first Austronesian migrations from Taiwan to the Philippines and the broader Indonesian archipelago, which began around 2000 BCE.Among the findings are prehistoric paintings, including red and ochre negative hand stencils. In the Maros cave complex, some of these artworks have been dated to around 40,000 years ago. Similar techniques can be seen at prehistoric sites in Europe, such as the Pech Merle cave in the Lot region of France, dated to around 25,000 years ago.
