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Drakensberg
Southern Africa's great basalt escarpment, the Dragon Mountains
The Drakensberg, the Dragon Mountains, form the highest and most dramatic escarpment in southern Africa, more than a thousand kilometres of towering basalt cliffs and serrated peaks. The Zulu name, uKhahlamba, the barrier of spears, captures the wall of rock that rises sheer from the rolling grasslands of South Africa toward the high plateau of landlocked Lesotho. Buttresses, pinnacles, and amphitheatres of dark rock catch the light at dawn, and the range holds the richest concentration of San rock art on the continent.
The Drakensberg is the eroded edge of a vast plateau, capped by basalt lavas that poured out around 180 million years ago as the supercontinent Gondwana broke apart, laid over softer sandstones beneath. The highest point, Thabana Ntlenyana in Lesotho, reaches about 3,482 metres, the loftiest summit in Africa south of Kilimanjaro. The escarpment is the source of major rivers, including the Orange, and its high country sees snow in winter, a rarity at these latitudes that makes it a watershed for the region.
For thousands of years the caves and overhangs of the Drakensberg sheltered San hunter-gatherers, who left tens of thousands of paintings of eland, dancers, and spirit beings on the rock, a record now protected as a World Heritage site. Later the range marked the frontier between Zulu, Sotho, and Boer, and its passes channelled cattle raids and migrations. Today the uKhahlamba-Drakensberg Park draws hikers and climbers to its escarpment, while Lesotho's highland dams supply water to the cities of the lowveld.