Are there any ancient monuments/attractions in South Africa?

Question

I was looking at South African historic sights on the internet, but most of them are not really that old. Most are from the British rule and after, but native people have been in South Africa for quite some time, so are there any ancient Zulu, Xhosa, etc. type of places?

What are the oldest and most famous monuments and historic sights?

Answer 1

There's a lot. Mapungupwe in Limpopo and omething ha jut been found in Mpumalanga. Link http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&...

Answer 2

Table Mountain is our oldest monument in South Africa

With South Africa having such a temperate climate, I suppose it was not essential to build solid structures.  Therefore, most of the "houses" were made of clay, mud, dung and any natural material like reeds, grass, branches etc, which all weathered and decomposed.  The only relics that are to be seen are a few bones, and simple tools like axes and similar archaeological artifacts.

http://www.mpumalanga.com/what_to_do/wha...

Kaditshwene / Gaditshwene (Tshwenyane Hills) - one of the heritage sites:

http://www.tourismnorthwest.co.za/herita...

Most of the early inhabitants of South Africa were nomads and did sometimes live in caves. So there are many cave dwellings.

All the rest of the present inhabitants "arrived" in South Africa through migration from the North:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_His...

As you can see in this link, Mapungubwe is almost on the border to Zimbabwe. So we can deduct that most of the people settled in that area, and only moved southwards later on:

http://www.mapungubwe.com/

Answer 3

From an African perspective the only ancient monument they have is Nelson Mandela. He is famous for writing and telling fairy stories and pretending he is not a criminal.

Answer 4

Actually Victoria, there are a lot of Ancient Monuments in South Africa. They are not the same type of monument that you are used to seeing but they are monuments nonetheless.

Before the Church Reformation sent white men from Europe scurrying out of harms way, before even the nomadic black tribes moved in from the north, South Africa had the Sans or Bushmen. They have left monuments all over South Africa in the form of Cave paintings. Try checking out these links or find your own links at google.co.za type in Cave Painting + Bushman I got over 100,000 sites found. Here are 3 of them

Answer 5

The black tribes living in SA before colinization were primitive savages and did not build monuments or the like.

Answer 6

Jan van Riebeeck only landed in SA in 1652 so we are relatively young. The Castle in Cape Town Jan buildt is one of the oldest "monuments" but then we also have our natural heritage, like Mapunguwe, read this link the city is thought to be more than 1000 years old.

http://www.safrica.info/about/history/ma...

Answer 7

None that I know of, I live in South Africa, the only place where you can see how they lived is in Kwa-Zulu Natal, in Zululand. Do a bit more research on it. Else, go to the Union Buildings, it is quite a sight, I love it. Also, there's the Voortrekker monument, Fort Klapperkop and Van Riebeeck Castle. These were all built by the Boers, except the Castle which was built by Van Riebeeck and his men.

Come to South Africa, and remember to visit Table Mountain and the V&A Waterfront. You will love it.

Answer 8

http://www.cradleofhumankind.co.za/

Answer 9

Before Europeans arrived no large monuments were built, the inguni had no interest in building such structures as they felt mud huts were perfectly acceptable establishments for themselves.