Geography
Mapungubwe is situated at the confluence of the Limpopo and Shashe Rivers in Musina.
History
Mapungubwe National Park, previously known as Vhembe Dongola National Park, is South Africa's newest national park. The park has now been incorporated into the Limpopo-Shashe Transfrontier Park, and will be flanked by South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe.
In the park is a sandstone hill called Mapungubwe, which was once the citadel of Iron Age people. Jan Smuts was one of the first people to see the importance of the area, and he proclaimed the Dongola Botanical Reserve in 1922. On 05 July 2003 the national park was proclaimed a World Heritage Site, and is now referred to as the Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape.
Art and Culture
The park is some 28 000 ha and includes sites of immense historical and cultural importance. Some of sub-Saharan Africa's most distinctive gold artifacts, beads and burial grounds reflect the rise of the ancient Zimbabwe culture here more than 1 000-years ago, while San rock art found in the area are dated at 15 000-years old! The great ruins show evidence of the first and one of the greatest South African kingdoms to have flourished, and has evidence that people occupied the area in and around 850 AD, a full two and a half centuries before Great Zimbabwe. The most significant find at Mapungubwe was a gold rhinoceros and gold bowl dating back to around 1200AD.
Science and Nature The park is home to giant baobab trees, riverine forests and flood plains, and visitors can enjoy seeing a tremendous diversity of game. Africa’s big game can be viewed, as well as fascinating indigenous flora.
Entertainment
The hikes in the area take you through game areas and hikers will find the scenery, birds and archaeological sites quite fascinating.
Did you know?
The finds at Mapungubwe show that the area was home to the first gold producing people south of the Limpopo River.
Mapungubwe surrounds
Mapungubwe, “the place of the jackal”, is situated in the Musina district of the Limpopo Province. A highly mineralised area, there is evidence of mining activities that go back thousands of years. Some of the riches mined include iron, magnesite, large amounts of copper, asbestos and even diamonds. The area is also rich in other ways - with relics of prehistoric people and their fascinating cultures. There are paintings on the walls of caves, piles of rocks used as strongholds and the hillock of Mapungubwe is really the stuff of legends!
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