Old Palapye is a heritage site located in

Botswana Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label= Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalaha ...

, near a town called Palapye. Old Palapye and Palapye are two different places according to the residents there,

Palapye Palapye is a growing town in Botswana, situated about halfway between Francistown and Gaborone ( from Francistown and from Gaborone). Over the years its position has made it a convenient stopover on one of Southern Africa's principal north–sout ...

is a modernised town. The site is located 20 km away from the

town and the people living around call it Malaka village This monument site is called Old Palapye because it carries the history of the ancient nature which differentiates it from the Palapye town. Old Palapye is a crucial site which has many artifacts in it from the middle, late and stone age history. Old Palapye became famous because the remains of the Ngwato capital which was found in the year 1889 during the ruling of the famous Kgosi Khama III from 1889-1902. Kgosi Khama III initially lived in a village called

Shoshong Shoshong is a town in Botswana, formerly the chief settlement of the eastern Bamangwato. Physical location Shoshong is located just north of the Tropic of Capricorn at , in the Central District of Botswana, about west of Mahalapye. The town is ...

village and later moved to Old Palapye because of shortage of water in

.He later moved to

Serowe Serowe (population approximately 60,000) is an urban village in Botswana's Central District. A trade and commercial centre, it is Botswana's third largest village. Serowe has played an important role in Botswana's history, as capital for the Bama ...

due to the same reason he moved from

. The attraction to the monument includes the perennial spring and water falls, stone remains of roundavels and rock paintings. The large much-photographed London Missionary Society (LMS) church ruins that were built in about 1892 and abandoned in 1902 are located at .

References

External links

Official website
Archaeological sites in Botswana Monuments and memorials in Botswana {{Botswana-struct-stub