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Vanrhynsdorp
Vanrhynsdorp (also written Van Rhynsdorp; ) is a town located in the West Coast District Municipality of the Western Cape province in South Africa. Considered the oldest and most southern European-settled town in Namaqualand, Vanrhynsdorp serves as a gateway to the Succulent Karoo and Nama Karoo regions to the north and east. History Vanrhynsdorp was founded as Trutro ("TroeTroe") after the area was first explored by Europeans in 1661 by Pieter van Meerhoff.Vanrhynsdorp SA Places. Retrieved 2012-05-06. The Troe-Troe Zending ("Mission") dates to the 1751 completion of the Trutro Homestead, which still stands in Vanrhynsdorp today. The name of the town was changed to Vanrhynsdorp (sometimes spelled ''Van Rhynsdorp'' in English) in 1881. Geography Vanrhynsd ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Matzikama Local Municipality
Matzikama Municipality () is a local municipality (South Africa), local municipality which governs the northernmost part of the Western Cape province of South Africa, including the towns of Vredendal, Vanrhynsdorp, Klawer and Lutzville, and the surrounding villages and rural areas. , it had a population of 69,043. It forms part of the West Coast District Municipality, and its municipality code is WC011. ''Matzikama'' is of Khoekhoe origin, the first people of South Africa. It contains the Khoekhoe language words ''ma'' which means "give", ''tsî'' which means "you", and ''ǁgamma'' which means "water", and loosely translates into "you that give water". Geography The municipality covers a total area of in the northernmost part of the Western Cape province, stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the mountains of the Bokkeveld Escarpment in the east. The Olifants River (Western Cape), Olifants River flows through the southern part of the municipal area, while to the nor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
N7 (South Africa)
The N7 is a national route in South Africa that runs from Cape Town northwards through the West Coast and Namaqualand regions to the Namibian border at Vioolsdrif. It is known as the Cape Namibia Road. After crossing the border, it changes designation to B1 and runs north through Windhoek and the north of Namibia. The N7 national route forms the first section of the Tripoli-Cape Town Highway, which is a proposed link between Cape Town and Tripoli, the capital city of Libya, being developed by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the African Union. Route The N7 begins at a four-way interchange with the N1 national route in Cape Town, adjacent to Acacia Park and Summer Greens, heading northwards. South of this interchange, it is the M7 route of Cape Town (Jakes Gerwel Drive). The portion of the road within Cape Town is a freeway, but it loses limited-access freeway status shortly after exiting the urban limit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steenkampskraal Mine
The Steenkampskraal mine is a rare-earth element The rare-earth elements (REE), also called the rare-earth metals or rare earths, and sometimes the lanthanides or lanthanoids (although scandium and yttrium, which do not belong to this series, are usually included as rare earths), are a set o ...s (REEs) mine north of Vanrhynsdorp in the Western Cape province of South Africa. The mine was operated by Anglo American Corporation from 1952 to 1963. In addition to the mining right area of 474 hectares, the company also owns three surrounding farms with a total area of about 7,000 hectares. Steenkampskraal has the highest grade Rare Earth deposit in the world. It has a resource of about 605,000 tons at an average grade of 14.4% Total Rare Earth Oxide (TREO) for a total of 86,900 tons contained TREO. Each ton of ore in the Steenkampskraal mine contains rare earths to the value of approximately US$3,000 at present market prices. The total quantity of neodymium in the mine is 15,600 t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
South African Standard Time
South African Standard Time (SAST) is the time zone used by all of South Africa as well as Eswatini and Lesotho. The zone is two hours ahead of UTC ( UTC+02:00) and is the same as Central Africa Time. Daylight saving time is not observed in either time zone. Solar noon in this time zone occurs at 30° E in SAST, effectively making Pietermaritzburg at the correct solar noon point, with Johannesburg and Pretoria slightly west at 28° E and Durban slightly east at 31° E. Thus, most of South Africa's population experience true solar noon at approximately 12:00 daily. The western Northern Cape and Western Cape differ, however. Everywhere on land west of 22°30′ E effectively experiences year-round daylight saving time because of its location in true UTC+01:00 but still being in South African Standard Time. Sunrise and sunset are thus relatively late in Cape Town, compared to the rest of the country. To illustrate, daylight hours for South Africa's west ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rare-earth Mineral
A rare-earth mineral contains one or more rare-earth elements as major metal constituents. Rare-earth minerals are usually found in association with alkaline to peralkaline igneous magmas in pegmatites or with carbonatite Intrusive rock, intrusives. Perovskite (structure), Perovskite mineral phases are common hosts to rare-earth elements within the alkaline complexes. Minerals are solids composed of various inorganic elements, mixed through processes such as evaporation, pressure or other physical changes. Rare earth minerals are rare because rare earth elements have unique geochemical properties that prevent them from easily forming minerals, and are therefore not normally found in deposits large or concentrated enough for mining. This is the reason they are called "rare" earths. These elements have a wide range of uses from every day items to military technologies. The minerals that do exist are often associated with alkaline magmas or with carbonatite Intrusive rock, intrusive ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
San People
The San peoples (also Saan), or Bushmen, are the members of any of the indigenous hunter-gatherer cultures of southern Africa, and the oldest surviving cultures of the region. They are thought to have diverged from other humans 100,000 to 200,000 years ago. Their recent ancestral territories span Botswana, Namibia, Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, and South Africa. The San speak, or their ancestors spoke, languages of the Khoe, Tuu, and Kxʼa language families, and can be defined as a people only in contrast to neighboring pastoralists such as the Khoekhoe and descendants of more recent waves of immigration such as the Bantu, Europeans, and South Asians. In 2017, Botswana was home to approximately 63,500 San, making it the country with the highest proportion of San people at 2.8%. 71,201 San people were enumerated in Namibia in 2023, making it the country with the second highest proportion of San people at 2.4%. Definition The term "San" comes from the Khoekhoe la ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Succulent
In botany, succulent plants, also known as succulents, are plants with parts that are thickened, fleshy, and engorged, usually to retain water in arid climates or soil conditions. The word ''succulent'' comes from the Latin word ''sucus'', meaning "juice" or "sap". Succulents may store water in various structures, such as leaves and stems. The water content of some succulent organs can get up to 90–95%, such as '' Glottiphyllum semicyllindricum'' and '' Mesembryanthemum barkleyii''. Some definitions also include roots, thus geophytes that survive unfavorable periods by dying back to underground storage organs (caudex) may be regarded as succulents. The habitats of these water-preserving plants are often in areas with high temperatures and low rainfall, such as deserts, but succulents may be found even in alpine ecosystems growing in rocky or sandy soil. Succulents are characterized by their ability to thrive on limited water sources, such as mist and dew, which makes them ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clanwilliam, South Africa
Clanwilliam is a town in the Olifants River valley in the Western Cape, South Africa, about north of Cape Town. It is located in, and the seat of, the Cederberg Local Municipality. Clanwilliam had a population of 7,674. Geography John Cradock, the Governor of the Cape Colony (1811–1814), named the town after his father-in-law, The 1st Earl of Clanwilliam, an Anglo-Irish nobleman. Clanwilliam is situated at an elevation of , between the western slopes of the Cederberg mountains and the east bank of the Olifants River, which is impounded there by the Clanwilliam Dam. It lies just off the N7 national road, which runs from Cape Town to the Namibian border, and on the R364 road, which runs from Lamberts Bay to Calvinia. Clanwilliam is from Cape Town by road. The Dutch Reform Church has been a scheduled national monument since 1973. The mission there used to run a school where Harold Cressy once taught whilst studying to become the first coloured man to gain a degree in C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vredendal
Vredendal () is a town in the northern Olifants River Valley in the Western Cape province of South Africa, with a population (according to the 2001 census) of 16,164 people. It lies north of Cape Town on the banks of the Olifants River at the southern edge of Little Namaqualand. Vredendal was laid out in 1933 as part of the Olifants River Irrigation Scheme, and attained municipal status in 1963. The name is Dutch and Afrikaans for "valley of peace", and was taken from the name of an old farm. Vredendal is the administrative and commercial centre of the northern Olifants River Valley and the northern part of the Western Cape province. It is the seat of the Matzikama Local Municipality and of a Vredendal Magistrate's Court. Between 1968 and 2001 it was a major integrated military base housing two SAAF fighter jet squadrons, a ground attack squadron, an Aerial refueling squadron, two airlifting transport squadrons attached to 3 Paratrooper Companies, two attack helicopter squadron ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cape Town
Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest city by population, after Johannesburg, and the largest city in the Western Cape. The city is part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality (South Africa), metropolitan municipality. The city is known for Port of Cape Town, its harbour, its natural setting in the Cape Floristic Region, and for landmarks such as Table Mountain and Cape Point. In 2014, Cape Town was named the best place in the world to visit by ''The New York Times'', and was similarly ranked number one by ''The Daily Telegraph'' in both 2016 and 2023. Located on the shore of Table Bay, the City Bowl area of Cape Town, which contains its Cape Town CBD, central business district (CBD), is History of Cape Town, the oldest urban area in the Western Cape, with a signi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nama Karoo
Nama Karoo is a xeric shrubland ecoregion located on the central plateau of South Africa and Namibia. It occupies most of the interior of the western half of South Africa and extends into the southern interior of Namibia. Climate The climate of the Nama Karoo tends to be volatile, unpredictable and rather harsh, with only the most specially-adapted organisms calling the region home. The annual ‘dry’ season—a time of blistering hot weather and drought A drought is a period of drier-than-normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, ...—is long, often taking place over autumn and winter, and into early spring. Heavy rainfall primarily occurs in the spring and summer ‘wet’ season. This time of plenty can also vary, with total measured rainfall fluctuating between per year. Rainfall is also known to be hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Succulent Karoo
The Succulent Karoo is an terrestrial ecoregion, ecoregion defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature to include regions of deserts and xeric shrublands, desert in South Africa and Namibia, and a biodiversity hotspot. The geographic area chosen by the WWF for what they call 'Succulent Karoo' does not correspond to the actual Karoo. Geography The Succulent Karoo stretches along the coastal strip of southwestern Namibia and South Africa's Northern Cape Province, where the cold Benguela Current offshore creates frequent fogs. The ecoregion extends inland into the uplands of South Africa's Western Cape Province. It is bounded on the south by the Mediterranean climate fynbos, on the east by the Nama Karoo, which has more extreme temperatures and variable rainfall, and on the north by the Namib Desert. File:Succulent Karoo.svg, Succulent Karoo vegetation types File:Succulent Karoo legend.svg Flora The Succulent Karoo is notable for the world's richest flora of succulent plants, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
