South Africa’s most well-known Iron Age site, Mapungubwe in Limpopo, was declared a World Heritage site by Unesco on Thursday.
Mapungubwe was among 24 sites inscribed in the United Nations Education, Cultural and Scientific Organisation’s World Heritage List by the organisation’s World Heritage Committee, Unesco said in a statement from Paris.
Unesco spokesperson Jasmini Sopova said the listing would draw world attention to Mapungubwe near Musina, 75km from Messina in the Limpopo River valley.
”Firstly, it is important for tourism. People will get to know the list and when it is on the list it is very attractive. Secondly, you can also get material help from Unesco for the site,” Sopova said.
In its statement on the listing, Unesco describes Mapungubwe as the centre of the largest kingdom in the sub-continent before it was abandoned in the 14th century.
”What survives are the almost untouched remains of the palace sites and also the entire settlement area dependent upon them, as well as two earlier capital sites, the whole presenting an unrivalled picture of the development of social and political structures over some 400 years,” Unesco said.
The only other southern African site listed on Thursday was Zimbabwe’s Matobo Hills — a site of human settlement since the Stone Age and characterised by distinctive rock land forms as well as what Unesco called an ”outstanding collection of rock paintings”.
Excavations at Mapungubwe have unearthed a number of what are thought to be royal artefacts, including the famous Mapungubwe golden rhinoceros.
The site and Makapan’s Valley, also in Limpopo Province, were both declared national heritage sites by the South African Heritage Resources Agency in 2001.
They were the first two sites to be declared under the 1999 National Heritage Resources Act. – Sapa