World's View is a spectacular vista on the

escarpment An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that forms as a result of faulting or erosion and separates two relatively level areas having different elevations. The terms ''scarp'' and ''scarp face'' are often used interchangeably with ''escar ...

of the Nyanga Downs plateau in the

Eastern Highlands :''"Eastern Highlands" also refers to Eastern Highlands Province in Papua New Guinea, and part of the Great Dividing Range, Australia.'' The Eastern Highlands, also known as the Manica Highlands, is a mountain range on the border of Zimbabwe ...

mountain range, just north of

Nyanga Nyanga may mean: *Nyanga Province, of Gabon * Nyanga River, in Gabon and Congo *Nyanga people, an ethnic group from Congo *Nyanga, Zimbabwe, a town *Nyanga District, Zimbabwe *Nyanga National Park in Zimbabwe * Nyanga, Western Cape, a township in S ...

, in eastern

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

. It is situated at an altitude of with a drop to the plain below on the western side.

Description

A tower at the viewpoint bears a

toposcope A toposcope, topograph, or orientation table is a kind of graphic display erected at viewing points on hills, mountains or other high places which indicates the direction, and usually the distance, to notable landscape features which can be seen f ...

on which the direction and distance to thirty African localities are inscribed on slabs of black granite. A site office stands nearby with a small gallery, built in 2012 to house pictures of the flowers of Nyanga by local artist Mary Clark and a display on the history of the development of the viewpoint. The

Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden Kirstenbosch is an important botanical garden nestled at the eastern foot of Table Mountain in Cape Town. The garden is one of 10 National Botanical Gardens covering five of South Africa's six different biomes and administered by the South A ...

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

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 ...

, has contributed plants for a

protea ''Protea'' () is a genus of South African flowering plants, also called sugarbushes (Afrikaans: ''suikerbos''). Etymology The genus ''Protea'' was named in 1735 by Carl Linnaeus, possibly after the Greek god Proteus, who could change his form a ...

and wild flower garden created in a rocky

kopje 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 ...

adjoining the gallery. The

National Trust of Zimbabwe National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

manages the World's View site, which covers an area of about 70 hectares. Although the viewpoint itself is of modern origins, having been developed in the 1950s, the site was occupied as long ago as the 14th and 15th centuries. Some of the peaks along the edge of the escarpment, from World's View to Chirimanyimo Hill, are crowned by large stonewalled settlements at altitudes of over 2,000 metres. They were probably the site of villages and would have been built during a cooler and drier climatic period, when the mountains were less persistently misty than they are today.

Access

The viewpoint is just outside the northern edge of the

Nyanga National Park Nyanga National Park lies in the north of Zimbabwe's Eastern Highlands. One of the first national parks to be declared in the country,Nyanga National Park. Undated pamphlet, Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Authority it contains the highest land in Zi ...

and can be reached via an 11 km track from Troutbeck. On a clear day, places as far away as 60 to 70 km can be seen.

References

{{Reflist Geography of Zimbabwe Geography of Mashonaland West Province Tourist attractions in Mashonaland West Province