Balancing Boulder Savanna

Balancing Boulder Savanna is an original illustration set in Zimbabwe Highveld. It lies in the tropics, where the climate is monsoon-influenced humid subtropical — dry winters.

One enormous rounded granite boulder rests visibly on two small contact points. Several separate piles of exfoliated boulders stand nearby. Dry golden grass runs between exposed granite sheets, and scattered flat-crowned trees dot the open savanna behind.

Why do granite boulders end up stacked and rounded?

Granite weathers in curved shells, like an onion losing layers, and where joints divide it into blocks each block rounds off separately — leaving stacks that look impossibly balanced but are simply the last pieces standing. Dry gold grass with flat-crowned trees and no closed canopy is savanna with a long dry season, and the exposed granite sheets say a very old, very stable continental interior.

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