The wandering folk found a way in and built a door with stone posts and lintel around the gaping hole. They returned at the summer solstice and the winter solstice to light their fires and watch the sun move across the entrance and strike the sacred place within. But the wandering folk were not to inherit the earth, and one year they did not return. The warlike tribes that settled the area around the great rock had their own customs and their own stories. They ignored the sacred place of the wandering folk and let wild tangles grow over the stone door and hide it from sight. A mountain lion made its lair inside and then another lion. Later, bears and hyenas found its small inner caves warm and inviting.

When the fierce tribes and the waves of war they brought had washed over the great rock countless times, they finally settled and built towns then cities. The great rock was just a rock, unfit for agriculture and used only as a lookout post until even that function became defunct. The wild animals were driven further and further away from human habitation and deserted the caves within the rock.

Continue reading here: #writephoto: Final journey