Amatole Mountains
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Amatola, Amatole or Amathole are a range of densely forested mountains, situated in the
Eastern Cape The Eastern Cape is one of the provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, but its two largest cities are East London and Gqeberha. The second largest province in the country (at 168,966 km2) after Northern Cape, it was formed in ...
province of South Africa. The word ''Amathole'' means ‘calves’ in Xhosa, and Amathole District Municipality, which lies to the south, is named after these mountains.


Geology

The Amathole Mountains form part of the southern portion of the
Great Escarpment The Great Escarpment is a major topographical feature in Africa that consists of steep slopes from the high central Southern African plateauAtlas of Southern Africa. (1984). p. 13. Reader's Digest Association, Cape Town downward in the directio ...
, rising over 1,800 metres above sea level. The escarpment slopes are densely covered in ancient forests of yellowwoods,
white stinkwood ''Celtis africana'', the white stinkwood, is a deciduous tree in the family Cannabaceae. Its habit ranges from a tall tree in forest to a medium-sized tree in bushveld and open country, and a shrub on rocky soil. It occurs in Yemen and over la ...
s, Cape chestnuts and other indigenous trees. Deep indigenous woods like Kologha and Kubusie are some of the largest swaths of forest in South Africa. The mountains are capped with flower-rich montane grassland.
Albany thickets The Albany thickets is an ecoregion of dense woodland in southern South Africa, which is concentrated around the Albany region of the Eastern Cape (whence the region's name originates). Geography The thickets grow on well-drained sandy soils in ...
also feature prominently in the surrounding area. The mountains are famous for their scenic beauty with lush forests, ravines, waterfalls and panoramic views. The six-day Amatola hiking trail is one of the top hiking trails in South Africa. The Amatola Mountains’ geology is characterised by the
Beaufort Group The Beaufort Group is the third of the main subdivisions of the Karoo Supergroup in South Africa. It is composed of a lower Adelaide Subgroup and an upper Tarkastad Subgroup. It follows conformably after the Ecca Group and unconformably underlie ...
(subdivided into the Tarkastad and Adelaide subgroups), which forms part of the
Karoo sequence The Karoo Supergroup is the most widespread stratigraphic unit in Africa south of the Kalahari Desert. The supergroup consists of a sequence of units, mostly of nonmarine origin, deposited between the Late Carboniferous and Early Jurassic, a peri ...
. The sediments were formed by depositions in river channels, floodplains and swamps.


History and Settlement

These mountains were originally home to the
Khoisan Khoisan , or (), according to the contemporary Khoekhoegowab orthography, is a catch-all term for those indigenous peoples of Southern Africa who do not speak one of the Bantu languages, combining the (formerly "Khoikhoi") and the or ( in t ...
hunter gatherers. The Nguni migrations saw the arrival of the Xhosa herders from the north and the displacement of the Khoisan inhabitants during the mid- to late 17th century CE. Many of the current settlements in the Amathole region started as military outposts, for example Adelaide, Cathcart and Fort Beaufort. This is because, in the 19th Century, this region formed the border between the Cape Colony, and the Xhosa nation to the east. Frequent wars were fought along this border, particularly the 7th Frontier War (Also known as the Amatola War or the 'War of the Axe'). These wars were usually fought over farming land, cattle theft and legal jurisdiction and they saw the steady movement of the Cape's border eastward, into Xhosa lands. It was into the Amatola mountains’ forested ravines that the Xhosa armies retreated after the setbacks of these wars, so the Cape built the military towns in an effort to secure these borderlands for its farmers.


Interesting towns

250px, Tyhume valley and the view to the Hogsback pass in the mountains. * King William's Town is the old centre of the region. In this city there is a large museum, the
Amathole Museum The Amathole Museum, formerly the Kaffrarian Museum is a natural and cultural history museum located in King William's Town in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. The museum houses the second largest collection of mammals in South Africa ...
, with old collections. *At the foot of the mountains, in the town of
Alice Alice may refer to: * Alice (name), most often a feminine given name, but also used as a surname Literature * Alice (''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''), a character in books by Lewis Carroll * ''Alice'' series, children's and teen books by ...
, is the campus of the University of Fort Hare. * Stutterheim, beneath the Kologha range to the east, initially served as a settlement for disbanded soldiers who had fought in the 'Amatola War'. * Hogsback's first residents were farmers. This town is a very popular holiday destination that is reputed to have inspired Tolkien's Middle Earth. *The nearby town of
East London East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the f ...
is the largest in the region and is South Africa's only river port. The city is out of the mountains and the main administration centre for the Amathole region.


See also

*
Geography of South Africa South Africa occupies the southern tip of Africa, its coastline stretching more than from the desert border with Namibia on the Atlantic (western) coast southwards around the tip of Africa and then northeast to the border with Mozambique on ...
* The Great Escarpment * Geology of the Karoo * Cape Fold Mountains * List of mountain ranges of South Africa *
SAS Amatola (F145) SAS ''Amatola'' (F145) is the first of four frigates for the South African Navy by the European South African Corvette Consortium. ''Amatola'', in keeping with a naming convention depicting acts of valour, was named after the Amatola mountain ...
- a Valour-class frigate of the
South African Navy The South African Navy (SA Navy) is the naval warfare branch of the South African National Defence Force. The Navy is primarily engaged in maintaining a conventional military deterrent, participating in counter-piracy operations, fishery prot ...
* Xhosa Wars


References


External links

{{commons category, Amathole mountains
Amatola Mountains, Katberg and Hogsback, Eastern Cape
Mountain ranges of the Eastern Cape