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Photo: X Ceccaldi
Gaze for too long at these rock formations, and you begin to drift off and forget whether you’re looking at a geological phenomenon or a vast, abstract oil painting. The swirls seem to envelop you, and in Antelope Canyon they actually do. Let’s take a ramble down this most gorgeous of gorges and lose ourselves in the wonderful play of light and patterns that captivate its many visitors each year. Here lies one of the planet’s greatest natural art galleries.
Upper Antelope Canyon
Photo: Lucas Löffler
Antelope Canyon lies on Navajo land in the American southwest, nestled hidden in the Arizona landscape. One of the world’s true natural wonders, it is a place of splendid serenity, the sort of spot where people find themselves talking in hushed whispers without quite knowing why. As a slot canyon, it has been formed over thousands of years by the gradual wear of water rushing through rock.
Lower Antelope Canyon
Photo: X Ceccaldi
Slot canyons are exceptionally narrow, far deeper than they are wide, and Antelope Canyon’s fantastic whorls and contours can be up to 150 feet tall, while being observable only by very small groups shuffling along the sandy floor. The canyon was formed by the erosion of Navajo sandstone, chiefly due to flash floods that still occur here, making this very much artwork still in progress.
Photo: Luca Galuzzi - www.galuzzi.it
Rainwater, particularly in the monsoon season, runs into a large basin overlooking the slot canyon, picking up speed and sand as it runs into the narrow passageways. Grain by grain, the corridors are deepened and the edges smoothed to form the exquisite shapes and graceful curves in the rock. Wind too has played a part in eroding and sanding this majestic canyon.
Photo: X Ceccaldi
The geological rock sculpting here is split into two distinct areas. The Navajo people fittingly call Upper Antelope Canyon Tse’ bighanilini, which means “the place where water runs through rocks”. Lower Antelope Canyon, known to the Navajo as Hasdestwazi, or “spiral rock arches”, is less visited, as it is a longer and tougher hike and must be climbed into via metal stairways.
