The Koue Bokkeveld, meaning "Cold Buck Shrubland" 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 ...

, is 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

Western Cape Province 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 ...

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 ...

. Geologically the range is composed of Cedarberg Sandstone of the Cape System.

Location and extent

It is located above

Prince Alfred Hamlet Prince Alfred Hamlet is a small town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It was founded by Johannes Cornelis Goosen, who was born in the Klein Drakenstein and came to the Warm Bokkeveld as a young farmer. In March 1851 Goosen bought the ...

, north of

Ceres Ceres most commonly refers to: * Ceres (dwarf planet), the largest asteroid * Ceres (mythology), the Roman goddess of agriculture Ceres may also refer to: Places Brazil * Ceres, Goiás, Brazil * Ceres Microregion, in north-central Goiás ...

, and south and east of

Citrusdal Citrusdal is a town of 5,000 people in the Olifants River Valley in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is situated at the base of the Cederberg mountains about north of Cape Town. Agriculture in the area is dominated by citrus fruit fa ...

. The range runs in a WNW-ESE direction with a tall escarpment on its southern and southwestern side. Elevations of the range are an average of 1,600 m and there is often snow in winter. These heights are one of the coldest places in the Western Cape in winter.

Drainage

The Koue Bokkeveld falls within the

Olifants/Doring The Olifants River ( af, Olifantsrivier) is a river in the northwestern area of the Western Cape Province of South Africa. The upper and main catchment area of the Olifants river is around Ceres and the Cederberg mountains. The Clanwilliam and B ...

system and the

Doring River The Doring River ( af, Doringrivier) is a river in the Western Cape Province, South Africa. It is part of the Olifants/Doring River system. The name 'Doring' is also applied to a stretch of the Sout River, another Olifants tributary, midway t ...

has its sources in this range, contributing substantially to the flow of the Olifants catchment area.

Ecology

The flora of the Koue Bokkeveld is similar to the Cedarberg flora, with mountain fynbos at high altitudes, Karoo vegetation on the lower slopes and patches of Mountain cypress. Plants such as the oil bract conebush, a species of ''

Leucadendron ''Leucadendron'' is a genus of about 80 species of flowering plants in the family Proteaceae, endemic to South Africa, where they are a prominent part of the fynbos ecoregion and vegetation type. Description Species in the genus ''Leucadendron' ...

'', may be found.

Artifacts

There are ancient San

rock paintings In archaeology, rock art is human-made markings placed on natural surfaces, typically vertical stone surfaces. A high proportion of surviving historic and prehistoric rock art is found in caves or partly enclosed rock shelters; this type also m ...

at a place called Katbakkies. A meteorite crashed on the Koue Bokkeveld in 1838. It is known as the Koue Bokkeveld or CM2 meteorite. Its fragments were dispersed and now most of them have been lost.English museum accused of cashing in on SA meteorite
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References

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External links

Koue Bokkeveld Op-die-Berg Household Rainwater HarvestingZA080 Cedarberg - Koue Bokkeveld complex
Mountain ranges of the Western Cape