The Fabedugu stone guardians - ancient dunes frozen in time (15 photos + 1 video)

Near the town of Banfora in southwestern Burkina Faso, in the village of Fabedougou, tower majestic cliffs eroded by wind and time.





Their rounded outlines are reminiscent of the sandstone towers of the Bungle Bungle Range in Australia. However, the origin of the Fabedougou domes is quite different.



Bungle Bungle in Australia

While the Bungle Bungle formation is only about five hundred thousand years old, the sandstones that make up the Fabedugu domes are almost two billion years old, dating back to the Middle Proterozoic. Rocks of such venerable age typically undergo metamorphism due to the enormous heat and pressure caused by dynamic processes in the Earth's crust.





Fabedugu

But not these rocks. Despite their age, the sandstones have remained virtually unchanged and look surprisingly "young." They are so well preserved that some even show the ripples and shapes of ancient dunes, created by water currents and gusts of wind in ancient times. Geologists note that these domes are actually ancient sand dunes.



In the distant past, this entire area lay at the bottom of a vast ocean, where free-floating sediments accumulated. Over time, these sediments settled, compacted, and turned into layered sedimentary rocks of varying thickness.



Weathering and cracking processes transformed the rocks into domes and strange stone fingers pointing skyward. Varying weathering rates give rocks their characteristic layered appearance, as each layer, depending on its composition, deteriorates differently.





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