Uluru / Kata Tjuta Region - Uluru's true meaning

Visitors barely need to be told that Uluru is a monolith of great spiritual significance. The great, moody rock, reaching 348 metres tall and measuring nine kilometres at its base, fairly radiates mystery. Its relationship with the local Anangu Aboriginal people goes back some 60,000 years. The land is dotted with ancestral sites, rich in meaning.

Take a guided walk at its immense feet with some of the local people, or visit their centre at the base of the rock and listen to some of the Dreamtime ancestral stories that will give you an insight into the significance of this land.

To the Anangu, Uluru is alive with the presence of dozens of ancestral beings who still inhabit special sites. Their activities are recorded at certain sites around Uluru and most of the stories are sacred and shrouded in secrecy. But the Anangu, through their stories, artwork and dance can give you glimpses. The Liru (poisonous snake) and Kuniya (woma python) are significant ancestral figures for the Anangu, but there are many others as well. Some of them are illustrated in cave paintings around Uluru. Perhaps you will see the marks of Tatji, the small red lizard's efforts to scoop out his lost throwing stick, embedded in the rock. Or you may glimpse his body, which remains in the form of boulders on the cave floor. In the grey lichen on a rock face you may see the smoke from the fire once lit by the blue-tongued Lizard men who tried to cheat the Bell-Bird brothers out of their share of an emu kill.