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South
Africa - History |
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RESTINATIONS
Proud to be South African - Celebrating
11 years of Freedom |
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World
Heritage Sites |
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Cradle
of Humankind
Background
Only 45 minutes from the famous Goldfields
of South Africa, nestling in a peaceful
rural valley, lies an invaluable ancient
site, the Cradle of Humankind - a place
where our ancestors once roamed free.
Some of their fate was extinction many millions
of years ago; others became part of a long
evolutionary journey to the present. Today
their fossilised remains hold many clues
to our beginnings, and perhaps even a key
to our future.
The Cradle of Humankind, a listed World
Heritage Site in the provinces of Gauteng
and the North West in South Africa, is the
world's richest hominid site. A global legacy
and home of our ancestors.
We invite you to explore the amazing finds
that have led leading palaeo-anthropologists
and archaeologists to suggest that humankind
first appeared in this corner of Africa
and from there spread out to populate the
world.
Meet the famous "Mrs Ples" and
the amazing "Little Foot", the
3.3m year old skeleton that could be the
missing link between hominids (human beings)
and apes.
And while here, learn more about the other
attractions that the World Heritage Site
area has to offer to visitors from other
parts of the country and the world.
Robben
Island - [ click on image ]
 For
nearly 400 years, Robben Island, 12 kilometres
from Cape Town, was a place of banishment,
exile, isolation and imprisonment. It was
here that rulers sent those they regarded
as political troublemakers, social outcasts
and the unwanted of society.
During the apartheid years Robben Island
became internationally known for its institutional
brutality. The duty of those who ran the
Island and its prison was to isolate opponents
of apartheid and to crush their morale.
Some freedom fighters spent more than a
quarter of a century in prison for their
beliefs.
Those imprisoned on the Island succeeded
on a psychological and political level in
turning a prison 'hell-hole' into a symbol
of freedom and personal liberation. Robben
Island came to symbolise, not only for South
Africa and the African continent, but also
for the entire world, the triumph of the
human spirit over enormous hardship and
adversity.
A visit to Robben Island is a deeply felt
experience for South Africans and foreigners
alike. Its identity is linked to the heroic
lives of the people who struggled with the
consequences of unjust incarceration.
Views from the Maximum Security Prison are
barred. As former prisoners show tourists
around they mention this curiosity: all
the windows looking out to the mountain
or the sky are barricaded. There are other
things, too, that rend the heart on Robben
Island, but it was this strange and powerful
image of the barred and inaccessible windows
that moved the graphic designer who designed
the corporate identity of South Africa's
most famous icon of human transcendence.
The Robben Island imagery comprises bars
that turn into a human figure, arms aloft,
celebrating freedom. Behind them is the
patch of blue that kept hope alive. The
typography is naive, without a slick, finished
look.
The Island itself is barren and windswept
and has no pretensions.
Freedom
Park - [ click on image ]
 A
one-stop heritage precinct, Freedom Park
is as yet unrealized project (spanning the
period 2003-2006) that shall strive to accommodate
and chronicle all of South African humanity's
experiences. It will be an international
icon for humanity and freedom and will serve
to inspire people all over the world to
rediscover their humanity. A technologically
advanced and interactive wonder of South
Africa's heritage industry, Freedom Park
shall stand out as the centre for indigenous
culture and heritage in the world. People
all over the world are bound together by
their history. Their cultural and heritage
landscape is enriched by the buildings,
monuments, sites and other places of significance,
which reflect the layers of events and experiences
of a nation as it unfolds over centuries.
South Africa is blessed with a richness
and diversity of history, arts, culture
and heritage that is unsurpassed. Its heritage
is a microcosm of the story of humanity's
struggle for freedom and dignity.The Freedom
Park project is a visionary undertaking
that will celebrate South Africa's heritage.
The primary objective of the Freedom Park
Trust is the creation of a monument to South
Africa's heritage.
The secondary objective is the development
of a resource for research and education
aimed at developing a deeper understanding
of South Africa and its people. Freedom
Park will present new perspectives of South
African history. Much of South Africa's
heritage is presented from the perspective
of non-indigenous people, informed by notions
of racial superiority, which created many
myths, and prejudices, which continue to
exist today. It is a landscape, which remains
largely alien to the majority of South Africans.
Freedom Park will improve the accessibility
of our heritage, arts and culture by adding
the silent voices of South Africa's indigenous
people to this landscape, bringing new and
inclusive perspectives of history, and cherishing
our national diversity.
St
Lucia
The Greater St. Lucia Wetlands Park is South
Africa's first Natural World Heritage Site.
It was declared on 1 December 1999 by Unesco
and is South Africa's third largest park.
It stretches from Mapelane, or Cape St.
Lucia, in the South to Kozi Bay in the North.
The towns of St Lucia, Mtubatuba, Hluhluwe,
Mkuze, Mbaswana and Manguzi are close to
the park.
Inside the park you can find the Lake St
Lucia, the St Lucia and Maputaland Marine
Reserves, the Coastal Forest Reserve and
the Kozi Bay Nature Reserve. The park has
280km of coastline and is 328 000 hectares
large.
The park has a many different habitats including
coral reefs, beaches and coastal forests,
salt and fresh water marshes and areas where
rivers flow into the sea and salt and fresh
water mix. There are also lush areas close
to the coast and drier woodland areas. Many
different animals live in the Wetlands and
a large group of hippopotamuses and about
1 000 crocodiles survive there in safety
because it is a protected area.
The Greater St. Lucia Wetlands Park was
declared a world heritage site because it
has 5 ecosystems with so many different
African plants, animals and birds that exist
together and because it is so beautiful
and unique.
Ukhahlamba
- [ click on image ]
 Unesco
declared the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park
in KwaZulu Natal a World Heritage Site in
2000. The park is 240 000 hectares large
and is filled with beautiful rivers, wetlands,
indigenous forests, grasslands, valleys
and cliffs. Many endangered animal and plant
species live there.
The park also has some of the most beautiful
rock paintings in the world. There are 30
000 painted images in 520 rock shelters
and many experts use the area to study the
history of the people who painted the pictures.
Most of the paintings were made about 4
000 years ago by the San people and show
different animals, people and many other
subjects. They represent the spiritual life
of the San, who don’t live in the
area anymore.
The uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park was declared
a World Heritage Site because it is the
largest group of rock paintings south of
the Sahara Dessert in Africa and because
so many different subjects appear. The San
people lived in the area for nearly 4 000
years and the paintings tell us a great
deal about their way of life and what they
believed in.
Mapungubwe
- [ click on images ]
 The
ancient city of Mapungubwe is an Iron Age
archaeological site in the Limpopo Province
on the border between South Africa, Zimbabwe
and Botswana, 75 km from Messina. It sits
close to the point where the Limpopo and
Shashe Rivers meet and was the biggest kingdom
on the African sub-continent. In the 1400’s
all the citizens of the kingdom left and
all that remained were the palaces and the
settlements around them. Nobody knows why
the people of Mapungubwe moved away, but
the ruins give us a good idea of how these
people lived and how their society and political
structures grew over 400 years. Scholars
believe that the climate in the area changed,
which made it much harder to grow crops
and feed animals. It was declared a World
Heritage Site by Unesco in July 2003.
 A
large amount of artefacts from the royal
family have been discovered at Mapungubwe.
The best known of these objects is the golden
rhinoceros.
Mapungubwe was declared a World Heritage
Site because it shows proof of the changes
in human values between 900 AD and 1300.
These changes led to great cultural and
social changes in Southern Africa. It also
shows the growth and death of the nation
of Mapungubwe and its power as a trading
civilisation. Mapungubwe traded with Arabia
and India through East African ports. The
ruins of the cities and their settlements
show how a change in the climate can influence
a civilisation and clearly shows how unstoppable
change can force the death of a state. |
All information
courtsey South
African History Online |
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Map of South Africa |
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