Dolwe Island – A Treasure of Archeological Mysteries
Location:
Air: 133.88 km (83.19 mi) South East of Kampala.
123 km from Tororo to Bwonda via Nankoma.
Bwonda to Dolwe by water: 36 km (22.11 mi) South East
Coordinates: -0.12116672146358674, 33.7014708621302
Dolwe Island, sometimes known as Lolwe or Lolui is one of Uganda’s best kept top secrets hiding unexplained archeological mysteries from the past. Measuring about 25 km2, Dolwe is characterised by many granite rocks and boulders that rise like castles across the landscape.
Dolwe is near the border with Kenya in Lake Victoria. The journey takes about seven hours by public transport boats from Jinja. By both Road and water, it takes about three hours by boat from Bwondha landing site in Namayingo district
Archeological treasures
Dolwe Island hosts archeological treasures that give a glimpses of the many rich and diverse cultures that flourished around over the millennia. The Island’s mysterious and enigmatic past is encoded in form of rock paintings, carvings, engravings and rock gongs. Dolwe is believed to have the biggest known concentration of gongs in Africa left behind by unknown people.
Other mysterious artistic heritage from the past include thousands of depressions in the granite carved into large granite slabs. Some single art rock pieces are believed to have taken moths to create. Dolwe has about 20,000 art rock pieces thus breaking the record in Africa according to information from the Uganda Museum.
Another amazing fact is that some art work is found 15 meters up on the top of huge boulders and almost impossible to reach suggesting they were done for ritual purposes other than functional ones such as grinding grain.
Dolwe’s population of over 10,000 is mainly comprised of fisherman who are not bothered about the ancient art work.