Discover The Mysteries Of The Ancient Kingdom On The Hill

Mapungubwe National Park, set in one of the most beautiful parts of the country, is renowned as the centre of southern Africa’s first indigenous kingdom

DRIVE through the gates of Mapungubwe National Park on the border of South Africa, Zimbabwe and Botswana past a welcome party of wildlife such as elephants, giraffes, wilde­ beest, zebras and monkeys – all against the stark landscape of massive baobab trees.

These iconic trees are also known as "upside­down" trees because their branches resemble roots reaching for the sky. They grow enormous in size – the largest tree can fit up to 40 people inside its trunk because as these trees age and die off, their trunks become hollow. Carbon dating – a method used to determine the age of an object, for example, a tree – has shown that baobab trees can live up to 3 000 years old!

Mapungubwe National Park is home to a famous archaeological site atop Mapun­ gubwe Hill. In 1932 four men paid a local to take them to a kingdom that would become one of the most important Iron Age sites in Southern Africa. It’s on this hill that a small gold rhino was found inside what is thought to be a royal’s grave – proof of sophisticated gold artefacts in African cultures as far back as a thousand years ago.

The museum and interpretive centre inside the park tell the whole story, with exhibitions of artefacts found on the hill. Visitors can take a short walk to a lookout point with breath­taking views of the famous site.