Discover The Mysteries Of The Ancient Kingdom On The Hill

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DRIVE through the gates of Mapungubwe National Park on the border of South Africa, Zimbabwe and Botswana past a welcome party of wildlife such as elephants, giraffes, wilde­ beest, zebras and monkeys – all against the stark landscape of massive baobab trees.

These iconic trees are also known as "upside­down" trees because their branches resemble roots reaching for the sky. They grow enormous in size – the largest tree can fit up to 40 people inside its trunk because as these trees age and die off, their trunks become hollow. Carbon dating – a method used to determine the age of an object, for example, a tree – has shown that baobab trees can live up to 3 000 years old!

Mapungubwe National Park is home to a famous archaeological site atop Mapun­ gubwe Hill. In 1932 four men paid a local to take them to a kingdom that would become one of the most important Iron Age sites in Southern Africa. It’s on this hill that a small gold rhino was found inside what is thought to be a royal’s grave – proof of sophisticated gold artefacts in African cultures as far back as a thousand years ago.

The museum and interpretive centre inside the park tell the whole story, with exhibitions of artefacts found on the hill. Visitors can take a short walk to a lookout point with breath­taking views of the famous site.