Golden Rhino Discovery.com

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This is the route to the ancient Kingdom of Mapungubwe, South Africa’s first kingdom, which existed in the 13th century from about 1220 to 1290, on top of Mapungubwe Hill, the ‘place of jackals’. It is here where gold artefacts, including the Golden Rhino and other treasures have been discovered, revealing a sophisticated civilisation that was capable of working gold and traded with the Indian Ocean trade network that included the countries of Arabia, China, Indonesia and India. Mapungubwe was the forerunner of the Great Zimbabwe civilisation, and it is estimated that up to 5,000 people lived around the area known as Mapungubwe hill.

The Mapungubwe Landscape was declared a World Heritage Site on 3 July 2003. This confirmed the international importance given to the area to ensure that the natural bio-diversity of fauna and flora and African Iron Age archaeological sites are preserved for future generations to learn about and enjoy.

However, the Mapungubwe Route is not only the road to the ancient kingdom. It is also the road to one of South Africa’s newest national parks, the Mapungubwe National Park that incorporates the World Heritage Site. The northern boundary of the park is the Limpopo river. The viewpoint overlooking the confluence of the Shashe and Limpopo rivers is a vista where three countries, Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa, meet.