Isimangaliso Wetland Park consists of thirteen contiguous protected areas with a total size of 234,566 hectares. The site is the largest estuarine system in Africa and includes the southernmost extension of coral reefs on the continent.
Mandela was imprisoned here.
The Taung Skull Fossil Site, part of the extension, is the place where in 1924 the celebrated Taung Skull - a specimen of the species Australopithecus africanus - was found. Makapan Valley, also in the site, features in its many archaeological caves traces of human occupation and evolution dating back some 3.3 million years.
One thousand years ago, Mapungubwe in Limpopo province was the center of the largest kingdom in the African sub-continent, where a highly sophisticated people traded gold and ivory with China, India and Egypt.
The world's oldest and largest visible meteor impact crater.
Lynn Salmon <>{ Last updated: March 22, 2012