The Makhonjwa Mountains or Barberton Makhonjwa Mountains are a range of small mountains and hills that covers an area of , about 80% in

Mpumalanga Mpumalanga () is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name means "East", or literally "The Place Where the Sun Rises" in the Nguni languages. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, bordering Eswatini and Mozambique. It shares bor ...

, a province of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

, and the remainder in neighbouring

Eswatini Eswatini, formally the Kingdom of Eswatini, also known by its former official names Swaziland and the Kingdom of Swaziland, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by South Africa on all sides except the northeast, where i ...

. It constitutes 40% of the

Barberton Greenstone Belt The Barberton Greenstone Belt is a geologic formation situated on the eastern edge of the Kaapvaal craton in South Africa. It is known for its gold mineralisation and for its komatiites, an unusual type of ultramafic volcanic rock named after th ...

Geography

The area ranges in altitude from above mean sea level. It has a number of rocky hills, with moist grassy uplands and forested valleys. The region lies within the Barberton

centre of endemism A Centre of Endemism is an area in which the ranges of restricted-range species overlap, or a localised area which has a high occurrence of endemics. Centres of endemism may overlap with biodiversity hotspots which are biogeographic regions charact ...

. The mean annual precipitation is , with wet summers and dry winters.

Geology

The mountains lie on the eastern edge of the Kaapvaal craton. The range is best known for having some of the oldest exposed rocks on Earth, estimated to be between 3.2 and 3.6 billion years (Ga) old, dating from the

Paleoarchean The Paleoarchean ( ), also spelled Palaeoarchaean (formerly known as the early Archean), is a geologic era within the Archean Eon. The name derives from Greek "Palaios" ''ancient''. It spans the period of time . The era is defined chronometrica ...

. The mountain range's extreme age and exceptional preservation have yielded some of the oldest undisputed signs of life on Earth and provide insight into the hostile nature of the

Precambrian The Precambrian ( ; or pre-Cambrian, sometimes abbreviated pC, or Cryptozoic) is the earliest part of Earth's history, set before the current Phanerozoic Eon. The Precambrian is so named because it preceded the Cambrian, the first period of t ...

environment under which this life evolved. This has led to the area being otherwise known as the "Genesis of life". The range is also known for its gold deposits and a number of

komatiite Komatiite is a type of ultramafic mantle-derived volcanic rock defined as having crystallised from a lava of at least 18 wt% magnesium oxide (MgO). It is classified as a 'picritic rock'. Komatiites have low silicon, potassium and aluminium, and ...

s, an unusual type of

ultramafic Ultramafic rocks (also referred to as ultrabasic rocks, although the terms are not wholly equivalent) are igneous and meta-igneous rocks with a very low silica content (less than 45%), generally >18% MgO, high FeO, low potassium, and are usua ...

volcanic rock named after the

Komati River The Komati River, also known as the Inkomati River or Incomati River (in Mozambique, from Portuguese Rio Incomati), is a river in South Africa, Eswatini and Mozambique. Originating in north-western Eswatini, it is joined by the Crocodile Riv ...

that flows through the belt. In April 2014, scientists reported finding evidence of the largest terrestrial meteor

impact event An impact event is a collision between astronomical objects causing measurable effects. Impact events have been found to regularly occur in planetary systems, though the most frequent involve asteroids, comets or meteoroids and have minimal effe ...

to date near the area. They estimated the impact occurred about 3.26 billion years ago and that the impactor was approximately between wide. The crater from this event, if it still exists, has not yet been found. In May 2019, extraterrestrial organic materials in 3.3-billion-year-old volcanic rocks was found at the Makhonjwa Mountains.

History

Swazis The Swati or Swazi (Swati: ''Emaswati'', singular ''Liswati'') are a Bantu ethnic group native to Southern Africa, inhabiting Eswatini, a sovereign kingdom in Southern Africa, and South Africa's Mpumalanga province. EmaSwati are part of the N ...

and other pastoral peoples probably grazed their livestock there, but not in large numbers, until the arrival of European settlers in the 1860s. Gold was discovered near

Kaapsehoop Kaapschehoop or Kaapsehoop is a village situated in Mpumalanga province (formerly Eastern Transvaal) of South Africa. It is situated 1640 m (5380 ft.) above sea level on the Drakensberg Highveld escarpment, about 28 km from Mbombe ...

in 1875, but it was the find by George Barber and his cousins Fred and Harry Barber that triggered a

gold rush A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, ...

in 1884, leading to the founding of the town of Barberton. It was later overshadowed by the 1886

Witwatersrand Gold Rush The Witwatersrand Gold Rush was a gold rush that began in 1886 and led to the establishment of Johannesburg, South Africa. It was a part of the Mineral Revolution. Origins In the modern-day province of Mpumalanga, gold miners in the alluvial ...

. Economically speaking, mining is declining, and the main activities are now timber harvesting and grazing. Commercial plantations grow

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. ''World Flora Online'' accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as cu ...

and

eucalyptus ''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of more than 700 species of flowering plants in the family Myrtaceae. Most species of ''Eucalyptus'' are trees, often Mallee (habit), mallees, and a few are shrubs. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalyp ...

. In 2009, a submission was made for the region's classification as a

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

. The location became a World Heritage Site in 2018.

References

{{World Heritage Sites in South Africa Geology of South Africa Mountain ranges of South Africa Landforms of Mpumalanga World Heritage Sites in South Africa Mountains of Eswatini