The Makhonjwa Mountains are a range of small mountains and hills that covers an area of , about 80% in

Mpumalanga Mpumalanga () is a province of South Africa. The name means "East", or literally "The Place Where the Sun Rises" in the Swazi, Xhosa, Ndebele and Zulu languages. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, bordering Eswatini and Mozambique. It ...

, a province of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

, and the remainder in neighbouring

Eswatini Eswatini ( ; ss, eSwatini ), officially the Kingdom of Eswatini and formerly named Swaziland ( ; officially renamed in 2018), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by Mozambique to its northeast and South Africa to its no ...

. It constitutes 40% of the

Barberton Greenstone Belt The Barberton Greenstone Belt is situated on the eastern edge of Kaapvaal Craton in South Africa. It is known for its gold mineralisation and for its komatiites, an unusual type of ultramafic volcanic rock named after the Komati River that flows t ...

Geography

The area ranges in altitude from above mean sea level. It has a number of rocky hills, with moist grassy uplands and forested valleys. The region lies within the Barberton

centre of endemism A Centre of Endemism is an area in which the ranges of restricted-range species overlap, or a localised area which has a high occurrence of endemics. Centres of endemism may overlap with biodiversity hotspots which are biogeographic regions characte ...

. The mean annual precipitation is , with wet summers and dry winters.

Geology

The mountains lie on the eastern edge of the

Kaapvaal Craton The Kaapvaal Craton (centred on Limpopo Province in South Africa), along with the Pilbara Craton of Western Australia, are the only remaining areas of pristine 3.6–2.5 Ga (billion years ago) crust on Earth. Similarities of rock records fro ...

. The range is best known for having some of the oldest exposed rocks on Earth, estimated to be between 3.2 and 3.6 billion years (Ga) old, dating from the

Paleoarchean The Paleoarchean (), also spelled Palaeoarchaean (formerly known as early Archean), is a Geologic time scale#Terminology, geologic era within the Archean, Archaean Eon. The name derives from Greek "Palaios" ''ancient''. It spans the period of time ...

. The mountain range's extreme age and exceptional preservation have yielded some of the oldest undisputed signs of life on Earth and provide insight into the hostile nature of the

Precambrian The Precambrian (or Pre-Cambrian, sometimes abbreviated pꞒ, or Cryptozoic) is the earliest part of Earth's history, set before the current Phanerozoic Eon. The Precambrian is so named because it preceded the Cambrian, the first period of the ...

environment under which this life evolved. This has led to the area being otherwise known as the "Genesis of life". The range is also known for its gold deposits and a number of komatiites, an unusual type of

ultramafic Ultramafic rocks (also referred to as ultrabasic rocks, although the terms are not wholly equivalent) are igneous and meta-igneous rocks with a very low silica content (less than 45%), generally >18% MgO, high FeO, low potassium, and are composed ...

volcanic rock named after the

Komati River The Komati River, also known as the Inkomati River or Incomati River (in Mozambique, from Portuguese Rio Incomati), is a river in South Africa, Eswatini and Mozambique. Originating in north-western Eswatini, it is joined by the Crocodile R ...

that flows through the belt. In April 2014, scientists reported finding evidence of the largest terrestrial meteor

impact event An impact event is a collision between astronomical objects causing measurable effects. Impact events have physical consequences and have been found to regularly occur in planetary systems, though the most frequent involve asteroids, comets or me ...

to date near the area. They estimated the impact occurred about 3.26 billion years ago and that the impactor was approximately between wide. The crater from this event, if it still exists, has not yet been found. In May 2019, extraterrestrial organic materials in 3.3-billion-year-old volcanic rocks was found at Makhonjwa Mountains.

History

Swazis and other pastoral peoples probably grazed their livestock there, but not in large numbers, until the arrival of European settlers in the 1860s. Gold was discovered near

Kaapsehoop Kaapschehoop or Kaapsehoop is a village situated in Mpumalanga province (formerly Eastern Transvaal) of South Africa. It is situated 1640 m (5380 ft.) above sea level on the Drakensberg Highveld escarpment, about 28 km from Nels ...

in 1875, but it was the find by George Barber and his cousins Fred and Harry Barber that triggered a

gold rush A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, New Z ...

in 1884, leading to the founding of the town of Barberton. It was later overshadowed by the 1886

Witwatersrand Gold Rush The Witwatersrand Gold Rush was a gold rush in 1886 that led to the establishment of Johannesburg, South Africa. It was a part of the Mineral Revolution. Origins In the modern day province of Mpumalanga, gold miners in the alluvial mines of B ...

. Economically speaking, mining is declining, and the main activities are now timber harvesting and grazing. Commercial plantations grow

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accep ...

and

eucalyptus ''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of over seven hundred species of flowering trees, shrubs or mallees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalypteae, including '' Corymbia'', they are commonly known as euca ...

. In 2009, a submission was made for the region's classification as a

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

. The location became a World Heritage Site in 2018.

References

{{World Heritage Sites in South Africa Geology of South Africa Mountain ranges of South Africa Landforms of Mpumalanga World Heritage Sites in South Africa Mountains of Eswatini