Van Reenen's Pass is a

pass Pass, PASS, The Pass or Passed may refer to: Places *Pass, County Meath, a townland in Ireland *Pass, Poland, a village in Poland *El Paso, Texas, a city which translates to "The Pass" * Pass, an alternate term for a number of straits: see Li ...

through the

Drakensberg The Drakensberg (Zulu language, Zulu: uKhahlamba, Sotho language, Sotho: Maloti, Afrikaans: Drakensberge) is the eastern portion of the Great Escarpment, Southern Africa, Great Escarpment, which encloses the central South Africa#Geography, Sout ...

mountains in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. The N3 freeway, the main road between

Durban Durban ( ; , from meaning "bay, lagoon") is the third-most populous city in South Africa, after Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the largest city in the Provinces of South Africa, province of KwaZulu-Natal. Situated on the east coast of South ...

and

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

, was constructed through the pass with the northern end of the pass lying at the border of the provinces of

KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN) is a Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the government merged the Zulu people, Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu language, Zulu) and ...

and the Free State. The village of

Van Reenen Van Reenen is a settlement in Uthukela District Municipality in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. It is located on the N3 national road at the top of Van Reenen's Pass on the Great Escarpment of the Drakensberg. The town is named a ...

sits atop the pass and the two nearest towns are Ladysmith and

Harrismith Harrismith is a large town in the Free State (South African province), Free State province of South Africa. It was named for Sir Harry Smith, 1st Baronet, Sir Harry Smith, a 19th-century British governor and high commissioner of the Cape Colony. ...

, situated in the respective

and Free State provinces.

History

The pass is named after Frans van Reenen who owned the farm ''Sandspruit'' at the foot of the pass. In 1856, he helped plan a route for a road through the pass. The object of the pass was to open up trade between Natal and the Orange Free State. Van Reenen showed the engineers the route he used to move his livestock to the interior. A railroad followed in 1891. From 1953 to 1956, the existing road over the pass was rebuilt.

References

{{Authority control Mountain passes of KwaZulu-Natal