The Hex River Mountains ( af, Hexrivierberge) make up the second highest
mountain range
A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have arise ...
in the
Western Cape
The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020 ...
province of
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...
and are located 120 kilometres (75 miles) north-east of
Cape Town
Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second larges ...
. They form part of a large
anticline
In structural geology, an anticline is a type of fold that is an arch-like shape and has its oldest beds at its core, whereas a syncline is the inverse of an anticline. A typical anticline is convex up in which the hinge or crest is the ...
in the
Cape Fold Belt
The Cape Fold Belt is a fold and thrust belt of late Paleozoic age, which affected the sequence of sedimentary rock layers of the Cape Supergroup in the southwestern corner of South Africa. It was originally continuous with the Ventana Moun ...
mountain system and form a north-east, south-west trending mountain system forming the core of the Cape
Syntaxis
Syntaxis is a style in writing or in rhetoric that favors complex syntax, in contrast to the simple sentence structures of parataxis. For example, 19th-century German academic prose, and John Milton's ''Paradise Lost'' poetry in English are no ...
between the towns of
Worcester
Worcester may refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England
** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament
* Worcester Park, London, Englan ...
and
De Doorns
De Doorns is situated in the Breede Valley Local Municipality, Cape Winelands District Municipality in the Western Cape province of South Africa.
Location
It lies in the Hex River Valley on the N1 National Route, 32 km north-east of Worc ...
. They are mostly composed of
Table Mountain sandstone and most peaks reach 2,000 metres (6,562 feet) in height or more. The highest mountain is
Matroosberg
Matroosberg (Afrikaans for 'Sailor Mountain') is a peak in the South African Hex River Mountains, which belong to the Cape Fold Belt. With a height of above sea level, it is the highest mountain in the Cape Winelands District Municipality. The ...
at 2,249 metres (7,379 feet), making it the second tallest peak in the province after
Seweweekspoort Peak in the
Swartberg
The Swartberg mountains (''black mountain'' in Afrikaans) are a mountain range in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is composed of two main mountain chains running roughly east–west along the northern edge of the semi-arid Little Kar ...
Mountain Range.
The vegetation is primarily montane
fynbos and the mountains fall within the Cape's
Mediterranean climate
A Mediterranean climate (also called a dry summer temperate climate ''Cs'') is a temperate climate sub-type, generally characterized by warm, dry summers and mild, fairly wet winters; these weather conditions are typically experienced in the ...
. The mountains provide some rudimentary snow-skiing opportunities in winter, with the Western Cape's heaviest snowfalls occurring in and around these ranges. The surrounding valleys support intensive
deciduous
In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, a ...
fruit
In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering.
Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in partic ...
cultivation, mostly in the form of
cherries
A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus ''Prunus'', and is a fleshy drupe (stone fruit).
Commercial cherries are obtained from cultivars of several species, such as the sweet ''Prunus avium'' and the sour ''Prunus cerasus''. The nam ...
and table
grape
A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry (botany), berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non-Climacteric (botany), climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters.
The cultivation of ...
s.
Block streams and terraces found in the near the summit of Matroosberg evidences past
periglacial activity, which occurred likely during the
Last Glacial Maximum
The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), also referred to as the Late Glacial Maximum, was the most recent time during the Last Glacial Period that ice sheets were at their greatest extent.
Ice sheets covered much of Northern North America, Northern Eu ...
.
See also
*
*
*
References
External links
Hex River Valley tourism
{{Authority control
Mountain ranges of the Western Cape