Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape

Mapungbwe is a site of great historical, cultural and geographical significance. Situated against South Africa's northern boundary with Zimbabwe and Botswana on the confluence of the Limpopo and Shashe rivers, the Mapungbwe region is an open savanna landscape that straddles the north-south and east-west transport routes in southern Africa.

Mapungubwe became the largest kingdom in southern Africa, trading with India and Arabia via the African east coast, before it was abandoned in the 14th century. The original palace sites and the structures in the dependent areas remain almost untouched today, along with two earlier capital cities. Altogether, these present an unparalleled picture of development of social and political structures in the kingdom 400 years ago.

It was on these grounds, as well as Mapungubwe's illustration of the impact of climate change on culture, that the site was declared a World Heritage Site in 2003.

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