World Heritage Sites in South Africa

The World Heritage Sites in South Africa are identified as protected areas that bear immense historical, cultural and natural value. The eventful past, diversified cultural background and awe-inspiring wildlife and natural resources of South Africa actually lends it a lot of importance for which she takes pride in presenting eight World Heritage Sites. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation or UNESCO encourages the recognition, preservation and protection of natural and cultural heritage across the world, which is believed to be having a lot of importance for mankind.

UNESCO has identified eight World Heritage Sites in South Africa that include Fossil Hominid Sites of Swartkrans, Kromdraai, Environs and Sterkfontein, Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape, Richtersveld Cultural and Botanical Landscape, Robben Island, Ukhahlamba / Drakensberg Park, Greater St. Lucia Wetland Park, Cape Floral Region Protected Areas and Vredefort Dome.

The Fossil Hominid Sites of Swartkrans, Kromdraai, Environs and Sterkfontein are offered rich scientific information on mankind’s evolution, his lifestyle and the animals involved in his life over the last 3.5 million years along with numerous evidences from the prehistoric period. The Sterkfontein region is comprised of scientifically important group of World Heritage Sites which present evidences regarding the man’s earliest ancestors. The Cradle of Humankind is located at within a distance of almost 50 kilometers in the northwest of Johannesburg. Covering about 183 square miles this site includes a series of limestone caves along with the Sterkfontein Caves where a fossil 2.3 million years old was discovered by John Robinson and Dr. Robert Broom in 1947.

The Richtersveld Cultural and Botanical Landscape has been lately identified as the eighth of the World Heritage Sites in South Africa. It is a marvelous rocky desert in the north western part of the country that is owned and maintained exclusively by the Nama community. This arid and rugged land experiences extremities of temperature but are conserved by the Nama community whose ancestors were the Khoi Khoi people. The Nama people at present dwell in three tiny villages – Eksteenfontein, Lekkersing and Kuboes. The Nababiep National Park, the Richtersveld National Park and the communal grazing lands enclose the Richtersveld Cultural and Botanical Landscape for offering it added protection.

The Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape is sited very close to the northern limit of South Africa and unites Bostwana and Zimbabwe. This land is an open extending savannah landscape located at the meeting point of the Shashe and Limpopo rivers. This area bears evidence for the crucial exchange of human values, which resulted in great social and cultural changes from AD 900 to 1300 in South Africa.

The Ukhahlamba - Drakensberg Park is excessively beautiful with its towering basaltic ramparts, sharp spectacular curbs and sandstone parapets. Undulating elevated grasslands, rocky gorges, unspoiled vertical river valleys and the diverse wildlife forms enhance the charm of this place. The rock art of this area is the biggest collection of rock paintings in Africa that is found in the south of Sahara.

Robben Island was used as a prison, a military base and a hospital from the 17th to the 20th centuries. Sited at a distance of about 120 km in the southwest of Johannesburg, the Vredefort Dome is a unique part of an impact structure of a bigger meteorite or astrobleme. The Cape Floral Region Protected Areas is one of the most important areas for plants in the world. It is in fact believed to have immense worth universally for embodying the continuing biological and ecological processes in relation with the Fynbos biome’s evolution. The Greater St. Lucia Wetland Park features the ongoing marine, Aeolian and fluvial processes that have led to the production of various landforms like sandy beaches, coral reefs, lake systems, swamps, coastal dunes and papyrus and reed wetlands.

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