Uluru holds deep Aboriginal significance to the Anangu people, and many stories are told as you wander around the base. You can also learn about Ayers Rock at the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park Cultural Centre. Anangu Tours is also based here, and can take you on numerous tours around the base, although they do request that you respect their culture and do not climb the rock.

Rising from the broad desert plain in the deep centre of Australia, Uluru/Ayers Rock is Australia's most recognisable natural icon.
The famous sandstone monolith stands 348 metres high and, like an iceberg, has most of its bulk below the surface. It is located 440 kilometres south-west of Alice Springs in the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. 40 kilometres to the west of Uluru/Ayers Rock is Kata Tjuta, also known as The Olgas. This massive pile of rock domes dates back 500 million years.
Both Uluru and Kata Tjuta have great cultural significance for the Anangu traditional landowners, who lead walking tours that inform about the local flora and fauna, bush foods and the Aboriginal Dreamtime stories of the area.

Uluru (Ayers Rock) emerges steeply from the desert sand and smoothes off toward the peak in what seems a rather unlikely shape for such a large rock. It is an absolutely breathtaking sight even for the most seasoned of travellers, taking on a stunning array of red and brown shades from dawn to dusk and sun to shade. It even transforms from the more familiar shades of red to grey during infrequent rain, with a myriad of small waterfalls cascading down its banded sides.

Ayers Rock was named for the Premier of South Australia, Sir Henry Ayers. It extends down over 3 and a half miles beneath the surface.

Approximately 500 million years ago it was part of the ocean floor at the center of Australia. Some report that there is a light source emanating at various times of the year. Most likely this can be explained scientifically.

The Aborigines believe that there it is hollow below ground, and that there is an energy source that they call 'Tjukurpa' the dream time. The term Tjukurpa is also used to refer to the record of all activities of a particular ancestral being from the very beginning of his or her travels to their end. Anangu know that the area around

Ayers Rock (Mount Uluru) is inhabited by dozens of ancestral 'beings' whose activities are recorded at many other sites. At each site, the events that took place can be recounted, whether those events were of significance or whether the ancestral being just rested at a certain place before going on.

Usually, there is a physical feature of some form at each ancestral site which represents both the activities of the ancestral being at the time of its formation and the living presence of Tjukurpa within that physical feature today. For the Australian Aboriginal people, that physical feature, whatever its form or appearance, animate or inanimate, is the Tjukurpa. It may be a rock, a sand hill, a grove of trees, a cave. For all of these, the creative essence remains forever within the physical form or appearance.

Around Mount Uluru there are many examples of ancestral sites. The Anangu explanations of these sites and of the formation of Mount Uluru itself derive from the Tjukurpa. Most of these explanations are in the realm of secret information and are not disclosed to Piranypa, the non-Aborigines.

Uluru stands an imposing 348 metres above the surrounding desert and has a circumference of 9.4km. It measures 3.6 km long and 2.4 km wide oriented in an east-west direction. Rather like an iceberg, there is more of Uluru under the ground than above it which really brings home the enormity of it. Formed in Cambrian times, it was later tilted through uplift and folding so the horizontal strata now sits at almost 90˚ which gives it the distinct vertical banding.

The Rock is arkose, a course-grained sandstone rich in feldspar at least 2.5 km thick. Uplifting and folding between 400-300 mya turned the sedimentary layers nearly 90 degrees to their present position. The surface has then been eroded.

Depending on the time of day and the atmospheric conditions, the rock can dramatically change color, anything from blue to violet to glowing red ! Many avid photographers set up for days and record the many changing colors of Uluru.

Uluru is made of feldspar rich sandstone called arkose which is mainly grey and white. The distinctive rust colour is caused by a thin coating of iron oxide on the outer skin. The changing colours of red at sunset are caused by light refraction as the sun sinks in the sky. The lower the sun goes it has to travel through more of the earth’s atmosphere which bends the blue light away leaving the red light to intensify the Rock’s red colour.