The Serra da Chela is a mountain range in south-central Angola. The mountains, rising to 2,306 meters (7,566 ft) above the coastal plains, are among the highest in the country. It forms part of the

Great Escarpment The Great Escarpment is a major topographical feature in Africa that consists of steep slopes from the high central Southern African plateauAtlas of Southern Africa. (1984). p. 13. Reader's Digest Association, Cape Town downward in the directio ...

of southern Africa, separating the

Huíla Plateau The Huíla Plateau ( pt, Planalto da Huíla) is a large plateau and highlands region in south-central Angola. It is part of the Great Escarpment and forms the southernmost stretch of the Central Plateau of Angola. It is separated from the Atlant ...

of the interior from the low-lying coastal Namib Desert. To its west there are some

inselbergs An inselberg or monadnock () is an isolated rock hill, knob, ridge, or small mountain that rises abruptly from a gently sloping or virtually level surrounding plain. In Southern Africa a similar formation of granite is known as a koppie, a ...

, remnants of the plateau from a time when it was more extensive. In many places impassable, the escarpment may be accessed by the road running east from Capangombe to

Humpata Humpata is a town and municipality in the province of Huíla, Angola. The municipality had a population of 89,144 in 2014. Humpata was the primary destination of the Trekboers on the Dorsland Trek in the 1870s. These Afrikaners formed the majo ...

on the plateau. The range was formed approximately 200 million years ago, when the supercontinent Pangaea broke up. What is now the Serra da Chela range was on the edge of one of the tectonic plates where Africa connected to South America, and rose slowly upward as the Atlantic Ocean formed between the separating plates.

References

Mountain ranges of Angola Great Escarpment, Southern Africa {{Angola-geo-stub