Kata Tjuta, also known as the Olgas, is a group of 36 domed rock formations rising up to 546 meters above the surrounding plain in the southern Northern Territory of Australia, located about 25 kilometers west of Uluru and composed of conglomerate, a coarse sedimentary rock made of rounded pebbles and boulders cemented together, deposited as alluvial fan sediment around 550 million years ago. Like Uluru, the rock was later tilted steeply by tectonic movement and left standing as the surrounding softer sediment eroded away over hundreds of millions of years, but its composition of large, rounded clasts rather than fine sandstone has caused it to weather into a cluster of separate rounded domes divided by narrow gorges, rather than into a single continuous mass. The name Kata Tjuta means "many heads" in the local Pitjantjatjara language, and like Uluru the site holds deep spiritual significance for the Anangu people.
Cross-Tradition Connections
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