Uluru and Kata Tjuta started to form about 550 million years ago.
The word is a proper noun from the Pitjantjatjara language and doesn't have an English translation. In 1873, the explorer William Gosse became the first non-Aboriginal person to see Uluru. He named it Ayers Rock after Sir Henry Ayers, the Chief Secretary of South Australia at the time.
Formerly known as Ayers Rock, Uluru is made of sandstone about half a billion years old.
Uluru and Kata Tjuta are remnants of sediments eroded from an ancient mountain range that existed about 550 million years ago. The sediments were subsequently buried and compressed to form harder rocks—called arkose and conglomerate by geologists.
Ayers Rock was created a national park in 1950. In 1957 Bill Harney came to the area and in 1958, when the rock was combined with the Olgas to form the Ayers Rock National Park, he was appointed the first official curator.
The visitors guide states, “Traditionally we have a responsibility to teach and safeguard visitors to our land. The climb can be dangerous and over 35 people have died while attempting to climb Uluru – many others have been injured.
It was given the English name 'Ayers Rock' in 1873 by surveyor William Gosse, but a dual naming policy in 1993 renamed the landmark 'Ayers Rock/Uluru' and, in 2002, 'Uluru/Ayers Rock'.
Called Uluru, or Ayer's Rock, this giant is a monolith 348 meters (1,142 feet) high, 3.6 kilometers (2.2 miles) long, and 9.4 kilometers (5.8 miles) around. It is the largest single rock known in the world.
Around 500 million years ago, the whole area became covered in sea. Sand and mud fell to the bottom and covered the seabed, including these fans. The weight of the new seabed turned the fans into rock. The sandy fan became sandstone (Uluru) while the rocky fan became conglomerate rock (Kata Tjuta).
Earth's oldest known piece of continental crust dates to the era of the moon's formation. Australia holds the oldest continental crust on Earth, researchers have confirmed, hills some 4.4 billion years old.
The granite rock that lies beneath Mount Augustus is 1,650 million years old. This makes it twice the size of Uluru (Ayers Rock) and considerably older. It is also the biggest 'rock' in the world.
Here's what THEY had to say about the meaning of Uluru:
Mountford worked with Aboriginal people at Ayers Rock in the 1930s and 1940s. He records that Uluru is both the name of a Dreaming ancestor, a snake, AND the name of a rockhole that is a Men's Sacred site located on top of the Rock.
In 1873 William Gosse was the first European to sight Uluru, naming it after the Chief Secretary of South Australia, Sir Henry Ayers. Giles was the first European to climb the rock - accompanied by an Afghan camel driver named Khamran.
We are are Yankunytjatjara and Pitjantjatjara people, the traditional landowners of Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. We speak our own language and teach it to our children. In our language we call ourselves Anangu (pronounced arn-ung-oo) and we ask you to use this word too.
Just like an iceberg, the bulk of Uluru is below the surface. Millions of years of erosion have revealed only the tip and while it dominates the landscape at 348 meters high, Uluru extends a further 2.5 kilometres underground, although some experts estimate is could be closer to six kilometres.
Uluru is big, but most of its mass is buried under the surrounding desert. Uluru as we see it today was created by millions of years of erosion of the softer surrounding rock. Beneath the surface, Uluru extends at least another 2.5kms.
Uluru is recognized as a World Heritage Site and one of the 7 Natural Wonders of Oceania. It is an incredibly unique structure located in the middle of an ever-ending flat part of the country. It looks out of place. Uluru reaches a height of 2,831 feet (863 m) and measures 5.8 miles (9.4) around in circumference.
Legend is Uluru rose from the site of a battle between two tribes over a tantalising lizard woman in response to the earth's grief over the bloodshed. Towering over the Australian outback, Uluru remains a source of reverence and awe from the indigenous Aborigines and Australians alike.
Uluru stands 348 metres above sea level at its tallest point (24m higher than the Eiffel Tower), yet it resembles a “land iceberg” as the vast majority of its mass is actually underground - almost 2.5km worth!
One of the things that make Uluru even cooler is the way in which it's actually something of a land iceberg, with a gigantic 2.5 km of its mass stretching underground – that's about seven times its height above ground!
Contrary to popular opinion, it is Mount Augustus, and not Uluru, which is the largest rock in the world. Rising 717m above the flat plains which surround it, Mount Augustus covers an area of 4,795 hectares, making it one-and-a-half times larger than Uluru (3,330 hectares).
Uluru is a sacred place for the Anangu people, the traditional owners of the monolith and the land it sits on. For years the Anangu have spoken out against climbing the rock and pleaded with tourists to stop ascending it. Uluru is a sacred men's site.
The word Uluru translates as Great Pebble. The Anangu people put great cultural significance on the rock, which changes colour throughout the day, most noticeably when it glows red during sunrise and sunset. Tours are given by the Anangu people, where visitors are told Aboriginal Dreamtime stories about the site.
These letters are called retroflex consonants and are pronounced in a slightly different way to the same letter without the line. A retroflexed consonant is pronounced with the tongue curled slightly back in the mouth, which adds a sound similar to an English 'r'.