The Eye of Kuruman ( af, Die Oog) is a
spring
Spring(s) may refer to:
Common uses
* Spring (season)
Spring, also known as springtime, is one of the four temperate seasons, succeeding winter and preceding summer. There are various technical definitions of spring, but local usage of ...
in the town of
Kuruman
Kuruman is a small town with just over 53,000 inhabitants in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. It is known for its scenic beauty and the Eye of Kuruman, a geological feature that brings water from deep underground. The abundance of water ...
(part of the
Ga-Segonyana Local Municipality) in the province of
Northern Cape,
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...
. Currently, it is known as the largest
natural spring
A spring is a point of exit at which groundwater from an aquifer flows out on top of Earth's crust (pedosphere) and becomes surface water. It is a component of the hydrosphere. Springs have long been important for humans as a source of fres ...
in the Southern Hemisphere.
although the
Te Waikoropupū Springs
Te Waikoropupū Springs, also known as Pupu Springs and Waikaremumu Springs, are located in Golden Bay / Mohua, Golden Bay, in New Zealand's South Island. The springs are known for the clarity of the water, and the volume of water discharged. Th ...
in Golden Bay, New Zealand has been reliably measured at an average flow some 60 times greater ().
The spring forms a small lake in the middle of the town, directly on the
N14 road and is located in a fenced park. It has a daily flow of about of crystal-clear,
potable water. Water from the spring supplies the town of
Kuruman
Kuruman is a small town with just over 53,000 inhabitants in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. It is known for its scenic beauty and the Eye of Kuruman, a geological feature that brings water from deep underground. The abundance of water ...
.
History
The town of
Kuruman
Kuruman is a small town with just over 53,000 inhabitants in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. It is known for its scenic beauty and the Eye of Kuruman, a geological feature that brings water from deep underground. The abundance of water ...
is located on the border of South Africa’s
Northern Cape and
North West
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...
provinces. The year 1895 was the only time in recorded history where the stream was constant throughout and moved from The Eye, down the stream Kuruman river,
Molopo River
The Molopo River ( af, Moloporivier) is one of the main rivers in Southern Africa. It has a length of approximately 960 kilometres and a catchment area of 367,201 km2 with Botswana, Namibia and South Africa sharing roughly about a third of th ...
,
Orange River
The Orange River (from Afrikaans/Dutch: ''Oranjerivier'') is a river in Southern Africa. It is the longest river in South Africa. With a total length of , the Orange River Basin extends from Lesotho into South Africa and Namibia to the north ...
and finally into the
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...
. Originally,
Tswana
Tswana may refer to:
* Tswana people, the Bantu speaking people in Botswana, South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and other Southern Africa regions
* Tswana language, the language spoken by the (Ba)Tswana people
* Bophuthatswana, the former ba ...
herders used the large spring as a water hole. The Tswana name for The Eye is Segonyana which means ''"Small Kalabash"''.
[https://www.cogta.gov.za/ddm/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Joahn_Taolo_Gaetsewe_District_Profile.pdf]
In 1885, the British classified the area as part of the
Crown Colony of
British Bechuanaland. This classification of land prohibited the Tswana people from using the stream for any purpose. The upper Kuruman valley became a crown reserve and The Eye of Kuruman became the town site. Access to the valley became segregated by race in the twentieth century under the Union government. A modern irrigation project was operated by the municipality of Kuruman after 1918 and, in 1919 black cultivators were evicted from using water from The Eye. However, black people continued to use the stream and moved 5 miles down the stream to Seodin. The water at the Seodin area had a much weaker stream making irrigation difficult for the Tswana people. The government's Department of Native Affairs drilled bore holes to assist the black farmers in 1940 however, this was still insufficient to sustain cultivation. In 1962,
Apartheid
Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
legislation led to the forced removal of black people from Seodin. The ‘whites-only’ irrigation project never commercialized despite state aid.
Cave
The Eye of Kuruman cave forms part of the eight caves on the dolomitic
Ghaap Plateau of the
Northern Cape. The Eye of Kuruman cave from which the springs emerge has been documented form as early as the nineteenth century. The first sketch of the cave was made in 1907 measuring a total of 138 meters.
Description of Cave
The dolomite cave has a series of cracks where streams of water flow. The streams of water travel through various passages and emerge together at the base of a cliff described as ''Die Oog'' in
Afrikaans
Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...
which translates as 'The Eye'.
Biodiversity
Both the air and water temperature of the cave is about with a relative
humidity
Humidity is the concentration of water vapor present in the air. Water vapor, the gaseous state of water, is generally invisible to the human eye. Humidity indicates the likelihood for precipitation, dew, or fog to be present.
Humidity dep ...
of about 99%
The
common bent-wing bat (
Miniopterus
''Miniopterus'', known as the bent-winged or long winged bats, is the sole genus of the family Miniopteridae. They are small flying insectivorous mammals, micro-bats of the order Chiroptera, with wings over twice the length of the body. The genus ...
schreibersii) and Geoffroy’s horseshoe bat (
Rhinolophus clivosus) were recorded in the Eye of Kuruman cave in 1985. Due to high levels of
humidity
Humidity is the concentration of water vapor present in the air. Water vapor, the gaseous state of water, is generally invisible to the human eye. Humidity indicates the likelihood for precipitation, dew, or fog to be present.
Humidity dep ...
as well as consistent human disturbance, very few bats are now found in the cave.
Aquatic animals that are found in the cave include:
*the airbreathing catfish ''
Clarias gariepinus
''Clarias gariepinus'' or African sharptooth catfish is a species of catfish of the family Clariidae, the airbreathing catfishes.
Distribution
They are found throughout Africa and the Middle East, and live in freshwater lakes, rivers, and sw ...
''
*
Tilapia
Tilapia ( ) is the common name for nearly a hundred species of cichlid fish from the coelotilapine, coptodonine, heterotilapine, oreochromine, pelmatolapiine, and tilapiine tribes (formerly all were "Tilapiini"), with the economically most ...
spp
*
Rhagovelia
''Rhagovelia'' is a genus of smaller water striders in the family Veliidae. There are at least 390 described species in ''Rhagovelia''.
File:Rhagovelia whirling in a swarm.webm, Rhagovelia can be gregarious and form swarms. Morton Arboretum, Il ...
, a water skater
*
Detritivores
Detritivores (also known as detrivores, detritophages, detritus feeders, or detritus eaters) are heterotrophs that obtain nutrients by consuming detritus (decomposing plant and animal parts as well as feces). There are many kinds of invertebrates, ...
include:
**unidentified
Isopoda,
**
Diplopoda
Millipedes are a group of arthropods that are characterised by having two pairs of jointed legs on most body segments; they are known scientifically as the class Diplopoda, the name derived from this feature. Each double-legged segment is a resu ...
of the Polydesmida,
**
Psocoptera
Psocoptera are a paraphyletic group of insects that are commonly known as booklice, barklice or barkflies. The name Psocoptera has been replaced with Psocodea in recent literature, with the inclusion of the former order Phthiraptera into Psoco ...
(psocidae) and
**
Ectobiidae
Ectobiidae (formerly Blattellidae) is a family of the order Blattodea (cockroaches). This family contains many of the smaller common household pest cockroaches, among others. They are sometimes called wood cockroaches. A few notable species inclu ...
*
spiders
Spiders (order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species di ...
of the families:
**
Amaurobiidae
''Amaurobiidae'' is a family of three-clawed cribellate or ecribellate spiders found in crevices and hollows or under stones where they build retreats, and are often collected in pitfall traps. Unlidded burrows are sometimes quite obvious in crust ...
**
Pholcidae
The Pholcidae are a family of araneomorph spiders. The family contains over 1,800 individual species of pholcids, including those commonly known as cellar spider, daddy long-legs spider, carpenter spider, daddy long-legger, vibrating spid ...
and
**
Sicariidae
Sicariidae is a family of six-eyed venomous spiders known for their potentially necrotic bites. The family consists of three genera and about 160 species. Well known spiders in this family include the brown recluse spider and the six-eyed sand ...
Cixiidae
The Cixiidae are a family of Fulgoroidea, fulgoroid insects, one of many families commonly known as planthoppers, distributed worldwide and comprising more than 2,000 species from over 150 Genus (biology), genera. The genera are placed into thre ...
survive by sucking the sap of plant roots that penetrate into the cave. There are also unidentified small flies (Diptera) in the cave.
See also
*
Wonderwerk Cave
Wonderwerk Cave is an archaeological site, formed originally as an ancient solution cavity in dolomite rocks of the Kuruman Hills, situated between Danielskuil and Kuruman in the Northern Cape Province, South Africa. It is a National Heritage ...
*
Kogelbeen Cave
*
Sacred caves of the Basotho For thousands of years, a pilgrimage has been made by the Basotho people to a network of sacred caves to communicate with the spiritual world. The caves also contain dinosaur footprints and ancient rock paintings. The caves are located between the e ...
References
{{Reflist, refs=
[{{cite journal, first1=E., last1=Irish, first2= J., last2=Marais, title=Caves of the Northern Cape, South Africa: a baseline study, journal= Navorsinge van die Nasionale Museum: Researches of the National Museum, volume=18, issue= 2, date= February 2012, pages= 15–29, hdl=10520/AJA00679208_1439 ]
[{{cite journal, last1=Jacobs, first1=Nancy, title=The Flowing Eye: Water Management in the Upper Kuruman Valley, South Africa, c. 1800–1962, journal=The Journal of African History, volume=37, issue=2, year=2009, pages=237–260, issn=0021-8537, doi=10.1017/S0021853700035210, s2cid=162353701 ]
[{{cite book, last1=Olivier, first1=Willie , last2=Olivier, first2=Sandra , title=Touring in South Africa, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NCYxAQAAIAAJ, year=2001, publisher=Struik, page=166, isbn=9781868723881 ]
External links
Kogelbeen Caves: South AfricaNC Provincial Government
Archaeological sites in South Africa
Landforms of the Northern Cape
South African heritage sites
Springs of South Africa
Tourist attractions in the Northern Cape
Archaeological sites of Southern Africa
Ga-Segonyana Local Municipality