Monday, July 20, 2009

South Africa whs

These are my 1st unesco cards from South Africa, all of them sent by Gisela "protea".

"Parys is a town situated on the banks of the Vaal River in the Free State province of South Africa.
Parys is in the 5km buffer zone of the Vredefort Dome World Heritage Site. Vredefort crater is the largest verified impact crater on Earth. It is located in the Free State Province of South Africa, and named after the town of Vredefort, which is situated near its centre. The site is also referred to as Vredefort dome or Vredefort impact structure. In 2005, the Vredefort Dome was added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites for its geologic interest." - in: wikipedia


"Robben Island is an island in Table Bay, some seven kilometres off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa. The name is Dutch for "seal island". Robben Island is roughly oval in shape, 3.3 km long north-south, and 1.9 km wide, with an area of 5.07 km². It is flat and only a few metres above sea level, as a result of an ancient erosion event. It is of particular note as it was here that former South African President and Nobel Laureate Nelson Mandela and former South African President Kgalema Motlanthe, alongside many other political prisoners, spent decades imprisoned during the apartheid era.
Today the island is a popular tourist destination and was declared a World Heritage Site in 1999. It is reached by ferry from the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront in Cape Town and is open throughout the year, weather permitting, and tours of the island and prison are led by guides who were formerly prisoners there. Robben Island Museum (RIM) operates as a site or living museum." - in
: wikipedia

The bushman painting in Drakensberg National Park.
"The Drakensberg is the highest mountain range in Southern Africa, rising to 3,482 metres (11,420 ft) in height.
Caves are frequent in the more easily eroded sandstone, and many have rock paintings by the Bushmen. The Drakensberg has between 35000 and 40000 works of bushman art and is the largest collection of such work in the world. Some 20,000 individual rock paintings have been recorded at 500 different cave and overhang sites between the Drakensberg Royal Natal National Park and Bushman's Neck. Due to the materials used in their production, these paintings are difficult to date, but there is anthropological evidence, including many hunting implements, that the bushman civilization existed in the Drakensberg at least 40,000 years ago, and possibly over 100,000 years ago." - in: wikipedia

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