Nqanqarhu (formerly Maclear) is a small town situated in the
Eastern Cape
The Eastern Cape is one of the provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, but its two largest cities are East London and Gqeberha.
The second largest province in the country (at 168,966 km2) after Northern Cape, it was formed in ...
province of South Africa, near the
Mooi River (a tributary of the
Tsitsa River), north of
East London and northeast of
Elliot. It was founded in 1876 as a military camp, called ''Nqanqaru Drift'' and developed rapidly, reaching municipal status in 1916. It is named after Sir
Thomas Maclear (1794-1879), a famous astronomer who laid the foundation for a trigonometrical survey of the
Cape Colony
The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope, which existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when it united with ...
.
It lies just north-east of
Ugie. The land to the east and south was part of the former homeland of
Transkei
Transkei (, meaning ''the area beyond he riverKei''), officially the Republic of Transkei ( xh, iRiphabliki yeTranskei), was an unrecognised state in the southeastern region of South Africa from 1976 to 1994. It was, along with Ciskei, a Ba ...
.
Tourism
Maclear is a
trout-fishing resort.
Geographic location
Maclear lies between
Mount Fletcher
Mount Fletcher (officially Tlokoeng) is a town in Joe Gqabi District Municipality in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa, 69 km north-north-east of Maclear.
Founded in 1882, it takes its name from the mountain nearby. This was probab ...
and
Ugie, in the foothills of the
Drakensberg mountains, and at the intersection between the
R56 and
R396 roads.
References
{{Joe Gqabi District Municipality
Populated places in the Elundini Local Municipality