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. Due to the similarity, the term '' scarp'' may mistakenly be incorrectly used inte ...

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, in eastern

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

. 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 ...

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 in

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

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 ...

, has contributed plants for a protea and wild flower garden created in a rocky kopje adjoining the gallery. The National Trust of Zimbabwe 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 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