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South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland
GPS: -29.464530819582, 29.267048696542
Look no further for a travel guide to visiting the Drakensberg in South Africa. With nearly 30 summits, Drakensberg is a spectacular mountain range located in a cross-border region between South Africa and the landlocked kingdoms of Lesotho and Swaziland. It has several peaks part of the eastern portion of the Great Escarpment including the highest mountains in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal Province. The Drakensberg’s group of craggy cliffs formed about 182 million years ago during the early Jurassic period. The mountain range is home to the Igula Nature Reserve, a protected wetland and habitat for a variety of flora, fauna and birds.
The Drakensberg is often referred to as “dragon mountains” or “the mountains of dragons” because of the shape of some peaks that are an average height of 2 900 metres. With its steep buttresses, peaks and narrow collars, its rocky territory and deep grassy valleys, this immense basalt barrier extends for more than a 1,000km. The Zulu nation name for the Drakensburg is “the barrier of spears” because it was the site of British, Zulu and Boer clashes on the battlefield. The Zulus were a warrior nation renowned for its powerful army under the reign of King Shaka, the founder of the Zulu empire. Despite a distinguished victory at the Battle of Isandlwana in 1879, the Zulus lost the war and were finally annexed by the United Kingdom in 1897.
Drakensberg is full of imposing landscapes and archaeological remains. It has one of the largest concentrations of prehistorical cave art on Earth. Originally inhabited by the San people, this underground heritage contains nearly 700 caves embellished with thousands of cave paintings (the oldest of which are dated 4,000 years) as well as stone engravings and sculptures. It is also in the Drakensberg mountain range that the third largest gorge in the world is found (the Blyde River Canyon) and the second tallest waterfall on the planet, the Tugela Falls. The combined total drop of the five distinct falls is 948m. The Thabana Ntlenyana, at 3,482m, is the highest point in Lesotho and the highest mountain in southern Africa and is lovingly referred to as “beautiful little mountain. The Drakensberg escarpment also contains major palaeontological sites including the oldest fossilized dinosaur eggs in the world.