Bhimbetka alias Bhim Baithaka Caves are the rock shelters situated 46 Kms south of Bhopal at the southern edge of the Vindhyachal hills, lies in Bhiyapura village in the Raisen District of Madhya Pradesh. The place derived its name Bhimbetka from the word Bhim ka bethika which means the place where Bhim sat and meditated. In the rocky terrain of dense forest and craggy cliffs, over 1000 rock shelters belonging to the Neolithic age were discovered in 1957, by VS Wakanker of the Vikram University, Ujjain. Bhim Bhetka as declared a UNESCO World heritage site in July 2003, thus becoming the 22nd site in India to receive the status.

Bhimbetka Caves consists of South Asia's richest collection of prehistoric paintings and other archeological discoveries. The paintings found in the rock shelters and caves of Bhimbetka were belongs to seven different periods - The Upper Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Chalcolithic, Early Historic and medieval. These paintings are done mainly in red and white colors with the variable use of green and yellow, which are prepared with the mixture of hematite, manganese, soft red stone and wooden coal with the occasional addition of animal fat and leaf extract to the mixture.

The paintings in more than 500 caves are supposed to be up to 12,000 years old which illustrates the lives of pre-historic cave dwellers like hunting, animals fighting, horse and elephant riders, dancing, music, decoration of bodies, honey collection, disguises, masking and household scenes. Some caves depict popular religious and ritual symbols and some have the paintings of animals like tigers, lions, wild boar, bison's, antelopes, elephants, crocodiles , dogs, lizards etc. The paintings in the caves, which encompass the proof of Stone Age habitation from the lower Palaetholic period to the late Mesolithic makes the site an archaeological treasure.