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Question 4 : Why is Uluru important to the Australian Aboriginal people?

  Uluru

  Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock, is the world's biggest monolith. It is 9.4km if you walk around it, and about 345

  metres high if you climb it (and is thought to be the tip of a mountain which extends kilometres below the surface).

  It's 3.6km long, 2km wide, and is roughly oval in shape. It's made of arkosic sandstone, and is renowned for the

  way it changes colour in the light and is particularly spectacular at sunrise and sunset.

  Uluru is located in the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park about 335km to the south-west of Alice Springs in Northern

  Territory, Australia. The Park is 132,566 hectares in size and is World Heritage listed.

  Uluru is the homeland of the Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara people (also known as Anangu) and was returned

  to their care and ownership in 1985. The area contains carvings and paintings by Aboriginal people and is also

  the location of a number of sacred sites which are closed to the public.

  The monolith's sandstone has weathered in places to form interesting shapes and caves.

  Uluru was named "Ayers Rock" by European explorer Ernest Giles who sighted it 1872. It was named by him for

  the South Australian premier of the time, Sir Henry Ayers. In 1995 the name of the National Park was changed

  from Ayres Rock-Mount Olga National Park to Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park to acknowledge Anangu ownership

  and their relationship with the area.lluru