Makapan’s Caves

Limpopo

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While not visually arresting, this National Heritage Site carries great palaeontological significance – artefacts from throughout the Stone and Iron Ages have been unearthed here. In the Historic Cave, chief Makapan and 1000-plus followers were besieged for a month in 1854 by Paul Kruger and the Voortrekkers. You must prebook visits to the site, 23km northeast of town; the guide also speaks French.

The fossilised remains of long-extinct animals – such as the sivatherium, an offshoot of the giraffe clan – have been discovered in the caves, which are still littered with fossils and bones.

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