The Kleinrivier Mountains are a
mountain range
A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have arise ...
in the
Cape Fold Belt
The Cape Fold Belt is a fold and thrust belt of late Paleozoic age, which affected the sequence of sedimentary rock layers of the Cape Supergroup in the southwestern corner of South Africa. It was originally continuous with the Ventana Moun ...
of the
Western Cape
The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020 ...
province of
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 ...
. Kleinrivier means "Small River" 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 ...
and is named after the river in the area that mouths out near
Hermanus
Hermanus (originally called ''Hermanuspietersfontein'', but shortened in 1902 as the name was too long for the postal service where the range begins in the west, then continues eastward to north-east of
Stanford and terminates at Akkedisberg Pass. The highest mountain in the range is Maanskynkop (964m) ( af, Moonshine Peak), and dominates the entire
Walker Bay
Walker Bay is a large bay located in the south-western Western Cape province of South Africa. It is the next major bay between False Bay near Cape Town and Cape Agulhas to the south-east. The bay is famous for having some of the best land based w ...
coastline. The mountains experience a very mild
Mediterranean climate
A Mediterranean climate (also called a dry summer temperate climate ''Cs'') is a temperate climate sub-type, generally characterized by warm, dry summers and mild, fairly wet winters; these weather conditions are typically experienced in the ...
, moderated by cool, moist winds blowing off the South
Atlantic
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 an ...
Ocean. Although no peaks exceed 1000m, the range is still quite imposing, as it rises very steeply from sea-level.
North of the main range, is actually the higher range of the Babilonstoring Mountains ( af, Tower of Babel), which are geologically part of the range, and even though shorter, are higher, with its highest point reaching 1167m. They are more clearly visible south of
Caledon, and are traversed by Shaw's Mountain Pass of the
R320.
Mountain ranges of the Western Cape
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