The Bhimbetka archaeological site forms one of the largest groups of prehistoric painted shelters in the world. The rock shelters are spread over an area covering 1850 hectares. These rock shelters fall in the Ratapani Wildlife Sanctuary in the Vindhya range. Besides prehistoric remains, large numbers of Hindu and Buddhist archaeological remains are also found here. 

Bhimbetka comes from the Hindi word ‘Bhimbaithka’ which means ‘the seat of Bhima’, one of the heroes from the epic Mahabharata. It refers to a hill about a kilometer long from the east to the west, five hundred metres broad from the north to the south and 650 metre high from the mean sea level. The hill lies two kilometers south of Bhiyanpur, a small tribal village.

Although rock art has been found throughout India, Madhya Pradesh holds the highest concentration of rock art especially in Bhimbetka. The Bhimbetka caves were discovered in 1957 by the Indian archaeologist Dr. Vishnu.S. Wakankar. The earliest rock paintings at Bhimbetka are around 10,000 years old and they are rendered in three main colours- red, white and green.

The  main forms of rock art at Bhimbetka are petroglyphs (engraving), geoglyphs (large design produced on the ground by arranging rocks), rock bruising (images made by the chipping away of weathered rocks ) and pictographs (paintings made on stone). The most common compositions consist of animals like elephants, antelopes, lions, monkeys and especially bulls and cows as well as humans in groups or alone.

Five groups of rock shelters were recognized by UNESCO as a world heritage site in 2003. However, there are two additional rock shelter groups on the Renhatti Road which were not included in the heritage site. 

The groups of rock shelters at Bhimbetka are as follows:

Group I (Karitalai to Vinayaka)- It consists of 12 shelters. Some shelters are painted. Remains of around 20 stupas we well as a wall of a possible vihara are present.

Group II (Vinayaka to Chota Jamunjhiri)-  It consists of 196 shelters. The famous "Boar Rock"(rock shelter with painting of a large boar with horns) is present here. Tools from the Mesolithic period, paintings of yakshas from the Mauryan period.

Group III (Choti Jamunjhiri to Badi Jamunjhiri)- It consists of 291 rock shelters. One of the main rock shelters of Bhimbetka called the Auditorium cave is located here. It is the largest and the most recognizable feature of Bhimbetka. Some rock shelters contain Shunga period inscriptions.

Group IV (Badi Jamunjhiri to Phuti Talai)- It consists of 175 rock shelters.  Beautiful paintings from the Mesolithic period can be found here along with ruins of a temple from the Parmar period and remains of buildings as well as dams. 

Group V (Phuti Talai to Renhati Road Colony)- It consists of 95 rock shelters. 

Thus, the Bhimbetka archaeological site consists of around 754 numbered rock shelters and nearly 500 rock art locations.