Mapungubwe
UNESCO World Heritage Site (2003): The Capital Of Southern Africa'S First Indigenous Kingdom, Trading Gold And Ivory To The Indian Ocean And On To China By The Thirteenth Century, Where The Golden Rhinoceros Was Found In A Royal Grave On A Sandstone Hill A Site Whose Existence Was Suppressed For Decades Because It Contradicted The Official Story That Black Southern Africans Had Built Nothing · Musina, Limpopo
Where the Limpopo and Shashe rivers meet, at the point South Africa, Zimbabwe and Botswana touch, a sandstone hill was the capital of southern Africa's first indigenous kingdom. By the thirteenth century Mapungubwe was trading gold and ivory down to the Indian Ocean and on to India and China, with a class structure visible in where people were buried and a royal grave on the hilltop that produced a small gold-foil rhinoceros now recognised as one of the country's national treasures. The site was excavated in 1933 and then effectively suppressed for decades, because a sophisticated black African kingdom contradicted the official story that there had been nothing here. The reserve around it is baobab and mopane country with elephant, and a treetop walkway out over the river confluence. It is remote, hot, malarial, and the most politically loaded archaeological site anywhere in South Africa, and one of the least visited.
Where the Limpopo and Shashe rivers meet at the Zimbabwe and Botswana borders, 70 km west of Musina, Musina, Limpopo, South Africa
Daylight hours with a SANParks conservation fee at the gate. THE HILLTOP IS GUIDED ONLY and the walks are booked at reception with limited departures, so confirm when you arrive rather than assuming - whether the hill walk and the interpretive centre are both running varies with staffing and conservation work. THE GOLDEN RHINOCEROS IS NOT HERE: it is held in Pretoria at the University of Pretoria's museum, and the row says so because visitors travel hoping to see it. The treetop walkway to the confluence viewpoint is self-guided. Camps are small and book out. The Limpopo valley IS A MALARIA AREA and is one of the hottest places in the country from October to March. Musina is 70 km east on the N1, Johannesburg about six hours south, and a saloon car reaches the main roads while the loops want clearance.