The Tswapong Hills are a mountain range in the Central District,

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 Kalahar ...

. They rise to an elevation of 300 to 400 m above the

hardveld Veld ( or ), also spelled veldt, is a type of wide open rural landscape in :Southern Africa. Particularly, it is a flat area covered in grass or low scrub, especially in the countries of South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini, Zimbabwe and Bot ...

of the almost 900 m high surrounding plateau. Geologically, these flat-topped hills are similar to the

Waterberg Massif The Waterberg ( nso, Thaba Meetse) is a mountainous massif of approximately in north Limpopo Province, South Africa. The average height of the mountain range is 600 m with a few peaks rising up to 2000 m above sea level. Vaalwater town is l ...

, located about 100 km to the south. The Tswapong Range receives relatively more moisture than the surrounding sandy plain of

Mopane ''Colophospermum mopane'', commonly called mopane, mopani, balsam tree, butterfly tree, or turpentine tree, is a tree in the legume family (Fabaceae), that grows in hot, dry, low-lying areas, in elevation, in the far northern parts of southern A ...

woodland. The rocky cliffs are made of porous rock that absorbs rainwater, which then seeps out forming permanent cascades and pools, such as the Phothophotho Gorge. The

Lotsane River The Lotsane River is a river in southeastern Botswana. It is a seasonal left hand tributary of the Limpopo River and has a catchment area of 9,748 square kilometers. Course The Lotsane has its source in the sandveld, at the eastern fringes of the ...

flows at the feet of the Tswapong Hills on their northern side. One of the main attractions of the hills is the spectacular Moremi Gorge.

Inhabited places

The former capital of the Ngwato Kingdom was in Phalatswe, also called

Old Palapye Old Palapye is a heritage site located in Botswana, near a town called Palapye. Old Palapye and Palapye are two different places according to the residents there, Palapye is a modernised town. The site is located 20 km away from the Palapye ...

, at the western end of the Tswapong Range. Moeng is a village located in the midst of the range at an altitude of 945 m. The village of Letsheng is located at the western end of the hills, while Matlakola and

Maunatlala Maunatlala is a village in Central District of Botswana at the feet of the Tswapong Hills, near the Lotsane River. It is located east of Palapye and from the border with South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Afri ...

are on the northern side. At the base of the southern side there are the small villages of

Tau Tau (uppercase Τ, lowercase τ, or \boldsymbol\tau; el, ταυ ) is the 19th letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the voiceless dental or alveolar plosive . In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 300. The name in English ...

, Gootau, Ratholo and Majwaneng.

Lerala Lerala is a village in Central District of Botswana. The village is located at the south-eastern end of the Tswapong Hills, from the Limpopo River and the border with South Africa and approximately east of Palapye. The population of Lerala wa ...

lies at the southeastern end of the range.

Ecology

The Tswapong Range is not a

protected area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...

. The hills, however, provide one of the two breeding sites in Botswana for the

cape vulture The Cape vulture (''Gyps coprotheres''), also known as Cape griffon and Kolbe's vulture, is an Old World vulture in the family ''Accipitridae''. It is endemic to southern Africa, and lives mainly in South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana, and in some pa ...

, a

vulnerable species A vulnerable species is a species which has been Conservation status, categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being threatened species, threatened with extinction unless the circumstances that are threatened species, ...

. Other birds found in the range are the

black-collared barbet The black-collared barbet (''Lybius torquatus'') is a species of bird in the family Lybiidae which is native to sub-Saharan Africa. Indigenous names include ''Rooikophoutkapper'' in Afrikaans, ''isiKhulukhulu'' and ''isiQonQotho'' in Zulu, and ' ...

, the

mocking chat The mocking cliff chat, mocking chat or cliff chat, (''Thamnolaea cinnamomeiventris'') is a species of chat in the family Muscicapidae which occurs in rocky habitats in much of eastern Sub-Saharan Africa. Description The mocking cliff chat is a ...

and the

red-winged starling The red-winged starling (''Onychognathus morio'') is a bird of the starling family Sturnidae native to eastern Africa from Ethiopia to the Cape in South Africa. An omnivorous, generalist species, it prefers cliffs and mountainous areas for nest ...

. This range is also one of the few areas where the

Jameson's red rock hare Jameson's red rock hare (''Pronolagus randensis'') is a leporid found only on the continent of Africa, mostly in the southern portion of the continent. Zimbabwe and Namibia are thought to have the largest populations of the red rock hare and it i ...

can be found. Among the other wildlife found in the Tswapong Range, the

leopard The leopard (''Panthera pardus'') is one of the five extant species in the genus '' Panthera'', a member of the cat family, Felidae. It occurs in a wide range in sub-Saharan Africa, in some parts of Western and Central Asia, Southern Russia, a ...

brown hyena The brown hyena (''Parahyaena brunnea''), also called strandwolf, is a species of hyena found in Namibia, Botswana, western and southern Zimbabwe, southern Mozambique and South Africa. It is the only extant species in the genus ''Parahyaena''. It ...

kudu The kudus are two species of antelope of the genus ''Tragelaphus'': * Lesser kudu, ''Tragelaphus imberbis'', of eastern Africa * Greater kudu, ''Tragelaphus strepsiceros'', of eastern and southern Africa The two species look similar, thou ...

rock hyrax The rock hyrax (; ''Procavia capensis''), also called dassie, Cape hyrax, rock rabbit, and (in the King James Bible) coney, is a medium-sized terrestrial mammal native to Africa and the Middle East. Commonly referred to in South Africa as the das ...

baboon Baboons are primates comprising the genus ''Papio'', one of the 23 genera of Old World monkeys. There are six species of baboon: the hamadryas baboon, the Guinea baboon, the olive baboon, the yellow baboon, the Kinda baboon and the chacma ba ...

and

crested porcupine The crested porcupine (''Hystrix cristata''), also known as the African crested porcupine, is a species of rodent in the family Hystricidae native to Italy, North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. Characteristics The adult crested porcupine h ...

deserve mention.Tswapong Hills - Wildlife
/ref> There are also two butterfly species endemic to the Tswapong Hills.

References

External links

{{commons category
Birdlife - BotswanaThe Politics of Space and Place in the Tswapong Region, Central BotswanaClimbing in the Tswapong Hills
Mountains of Botswana Central District (Botswana)

Inhabited places

Ecology

See also

References

External links