The Vredefort Dome

UNESCO World Heritage Site (2005): The Oldest And Largest Verified Meteorite Impact Structure On Earth, Made Two Billion Years Ago By An Object Perhaps Ten Kilometres Across That Struck With Enough Force To Lift The Crust Into A Dome Three Hundred Kilometres Wide Of Which What You See Today Is The Eroded Central Uplift, A Ring Of Hills Around Parys On The Vaal · Parys, Free State

Two billion years ago an object perhaps ten kilometres across hit what is now the Free State at a speed that released more energy than anything else recorded in Earth's history. The crust rebounded, lifting a dome of deep rock, and the crater that formed was around three hundred kilometres wide - larger than any other confirmed impact structure, and older. Two billion years of erosion have removed the crater entirely. What is left, and what UNESCO listed in 2005, is the eroded central uplift: a ring of hills breaking the flat Free State plain around the town of Parys on the Vaal River, where rock that should be kilometres underground sits at the surface, tilted and overturned. This row is honest about what that means for a visitor - THERE IS NO CRATER TO LOOK INTO and no single viewpoint. It is a landscape to understand rather than a hole to photograph, and Parys has turned it into a weekend town of rafting and breakfast.

Around Parys on the Vaal River 120 km south-west of Johannesburg, where the dome's hills break the Free State plain, Parys, Free State, South Africa

There is no gate, no ticket office and no single site - the dome is a landscape, much of it PRIVATE FARMLAND, and what is open to visitors is the area around Parys and along the Vaal. Geological tours, rafting and accommodation are run by private operators in and around the town and keep their own hours, so book ahead at weekends. THERE IS NO CRATER TO LOOK INTO AND NO OFFICIAL VIEWPOINT, which is the single thing to understand before driving out - visitors arrive expecting a hole in the ground and find hills. A guided geology tour is genuinely the difference between seeing a landscape and seeing a field. The Vaal River rapids run most of the year and are higher after summer rain. Parys is 120 km south-west of Johannesburg on good roads, about ninety minutes, and is busiest at weekends with Gauteng visitors.

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