We took a one-hour underground walking tour through the Sterkfontein Caves’ cave system, one of South Africa’s most famous fossil sites. Located about 40 kilometres northwest of Johannesburg in Gauteng, these ancient limestone caves have yielded some of the world’s most...
The Cradle of Humankind is a world-renowned UNESCO World Heritage Site, located about 50 kilometres northwest of Johannesburg. It is famous for its remarkable collection of ancient hominid fossils, offering an extraordinary glimpse into our human origins. We made a short stop at the main...
The Ngwenya Mine (🎟️70 SZL) is widely recognised as one of the world’s oldest known mining sites, with evidence of human activity dating back more than 40,000 years. Its extraordinary history spans three distinct eras—from Middle Stone Age pigment extraction, through Iron Age iron...
A surprisingly good road, interrupted only by a few potholes and damaged sections (304 km / 6 hours / toll fee 2x 3 USD), brought us from Bulawayo to Great Zimbabwe—the magnificent ruins of a sprawling medieval stone city that served as the capital of the Kingdom of Zimbabwe between the...
Today, we were invited by Ian Harmer (📞+263 772 224 069) from African Wanderer to explore Matobo National Park, located just 35 km south of Bulawayo. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the park is renowned for its spectacular granite balancing rocks, extensive San rock art, and one of...
Today, we took an InDrive taxi (20 USD) and travelled along the Old Khami Road, approximately 22 kilometres west of Bulawayo, to visit the Khami Ruins, Zimbabwe’s second-largest ancient stone settlement. Once the capital of the Torwa dynasty between the 15th and 17th centuries, this...
The history of Aksum centres on a powerful kingdom in modern-day Ethiopia and Eritrea that flourished from approximately the 1st to the 8th centuries AD. Aksum was a central commercial hub controlling trade routes connecting the Roman Empire, India, and the Red Sea, and its port of Adulis...
We took a branch road to reach an ancient pre-Aksumite temple dedicated to the South Arabian moon god Almaqah. The temple dates to around the 7th century BC and is known for its remarkably well-preserved, mortise-and-tenon construction using dressed stone blocks without mortar. The temple...
On our way to Berbera, we made a stop and a short off-road drive to Laas Geel, a cave complex famous for ancient rock paintings dating back to the Neolithic period, roughly 9,000 to 3,000 BCE (🎟️35 USD, paid in office in Hargeisa). Other sources suggest a date of around 6,000 years ago...
After some heavy searching, we finally found Dhagah Kureh, located about 45 kilometres northwest of Hargeisa. It is a significant Neolithic rock art site, known for its extensive ancient paintings that provide insight into the lives of early pastoralist communities. Situated among granite...