250px, Foothills of the Roggeveld escarpment, as seen from the Tankwa Karoo National Park
The Roggeveld Mountains (Rye-Veld Mountains) (
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 ...
: Roggeveldberge) 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 ...
situated mainly in the
Northern Cape 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 ...
. The range forms the western escarpment of the eponymous
Roggeveld
The Roggeveld (Afrikaans for "rye field") is a plateau in the Karoo region of the Northern Cape, South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is boun ...
plateau
In geology and physical geography, a plateau (; ; ), also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland consisting of flat terrain that is raised sharply above the surrounding area on at least one side. Often one or more sides ...
, and separates it from the lower lying
Tankwa Karoo to the west. Its highest peak is Sneeukrans (1,739 m), situated northwest of
Sutherland.
Unmarked on many regional maps, it occupies an extensive but remote part of the Northern Cape, seldom visited by tourists. It extends from the vicinity of
Calvinia
Calvinia is a regional town in the Northern Cape province of South Africa named after the French religious reformer Jean Calvin. The town falls under the Hantam Local Municipality which forms part of the Namakwa District Municipality. The Calvin ...
in the northwest, past Sutherland in the south, where it terminates in the Klein-Roggeveld range. Several road passes ascend the plateau from the south and west. From the south they are the Komsberg Pass, Verlatenkloof,
Ouberg Pass at an altitude of 1,404 metres, Gannaga Pass
[Gannaga Pass ] and the
Bloukrans Pass which ascends its northern promontory, the Bloukrans Mountain.
The range receives about 200 mm of rainfall in an average year, its higher elevations are amongst the coldest places in South Africa, as attested by temperature statistics kept for Sutherland, which is perched on the Roggeveld plateau at 1,500 m.
Notes
Mountain ranges of the Northern Cape
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