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| ROCK ART IN AFRICA: World Heritage |
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uKhahlamba
/ Drakensberg Park (South Africa)
Date of Inscription:
2000
Criteria: (i) (iii) (vii) (x)
Core zone: 242813 ha
KwaZulu-Natal
S29 22 59.988 E29 32 26.016
Brief Description
The uKhahlamba Drakensberg
Park has exceptional natural beauty in its soaring
basaltic buttresses, incisive dramatic cutbacks, and
golden sandstone ramparts. Rolling high altitude grasslands,
the pristine steep-sided river valleys and rocky gorges
also contribute to the beauty of the site. The site's
diversity of habitats protects a high level of endemic
and globally threatened species, especially birds
and plants. This spectacular natural site also contains
many caves and rock-shelters with the largest and
most concentrated group of paintings in Africa south
of the Sahara, made by the San people over a period
of 4,000 years. The rock paintings are outstanding
in quality and diversity of subject and in their depiction
of animals and human beings. They represent the spiritual
life of the now extinct San people.
Justification for Inscription
Criterion (i): The rock art
of the Drakensberg is the largest and most concentrated
group of rock paintings in Africa south of the Sahara
and is outstanding both in quality and diversity
of subject.
Criterion (iii): The San people lived in the mountainous
Drakensberg area for more than four millennia, leaving
behind them a corpus of outstanding rock art which
throws much light on their way of life and their
beliefs.
Natural criteria (vii) and (x): The site has exceptional
natural beauty with soaring basaltic buttresses,
incisive dramatic cutbacks and golden sandstone
ramparts. Rolling high altitude grasslands, the
pristine steep-sided river valleys and rocky gorges
also contribute to the beauty of the site. The site's
diversity of habitats protects a high level of endemic
and globally threatened species, especially of birds
and plants.
>> Download
the Advisory Board
evaluation (1.2mb)
Information
courtesy of UNESCO
WHC
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