World Heritage Sites

Year inscribed: 1999 Location: KwaZulu-Natal, 27º 50' 20" S 32º 33' E Type: Natural heritage On 1 November 2007, South Africa's first World Heritage Site, the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park, was given a new name that better reflects its unique African identity: the...

Year inscribed: 1999 Location: Western Cape, 33º 48' S 18º 22' E Type: Cultural heritage Robben Island is most famous as the place where Nelson Mandela, the first democratically elected president of South Africa, was imprisoned for 18 of his 27 years in jail. The...

Year inscribed: 1999, 2005 Location: Gauteng and North West, 25º 55' 45" S 27º 47' 20" E Type: Cultural heritage Known in South Africa as the Cradle of Humankind, the region of Sterkfontein, Swartkrans, Kromdraai and environs has one of the world's richest...

Year inscribed: 2000 Location: KwaZulu-Natal, 29º 23' S 29º 32' 26" E Type: Mixed cultural and natural heritage The uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park has outstanding natural beauty, Africa's highest mountain range south of Kilimanjaro, and the largest and most concentrated...

Year inscribed: 2003 Location: Limpopo province, 22º 11' 33" S 29º 14' 20" E Type: Cultural heritage Mapungubwe - "place of the stone of wisdom" - was South Africa's first kingdom, and developed into the subcontinent's largest realm, lasting for 400 years before it...

Year inscribed: 2004 Location: Western and Eastern Cape, 34º 10' S 18º 22' 30" E Type: Natural heritage The Cape Floral Region takes up only 0.04% of the world's land area, yet contains an astonishing 3% percent of its plant species. This makes it one of the richest...

Year inscribed: 2005 Location: Free State and North West, 26º 51' 36" S 27º 15' 36" E Type: Natural heritage Some 2-billion years ago a meteorite 10 kilometres in diameter hit the earth about 100km southwest of Johannesburg, creating an enormous impact crater. This...

Year inscribed: 2007 Location: Northern Cape, 28º 36' S 17º 12' 14" E Type: Cultural heritage The Richtersveld Cultural and Botanical Landscape covers 160 000 hectares of dramatic mountainous desert in the north-west part of South Africa. A unique feature of the site...