Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape
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How it came to be
Around 900, Zhizo people settled at Schroda near the confluence of the Limpopo and Shashe rivers. Around 1000, Leopard's Kopje people moved to Bambandyanalo, known as K2, where they herded cattle, farmed and grew rich on Indian Ocean trade through the Swahili towns of the East African coast. K2 had about 1,500 inhabitants by 1200.
When a wet period ended around 1200, the elite moved around 1220 to the summit of Mapungubwe Hill, an old rainmaking site, while commoners settled at its foot. By 1250 the capital had about 5,000 people, sending gold and ivory to the coast and receiving glass beads from India and Southeast Asia. It grew into the largest kingdom in the subcontinent before being abandoned in the 14th century.
Local people treated the hill as sacred and kept away, but in 1933 the Van Graan family forced a local guide to show them the path up and found gold objects and a richly furnished burial. The University of Pretoria gained rights to the finds, and the collection, including a wooden rhinoceros covered in gold foil, is now in the Mapungubwe Museum in Pretoria. Remains excavated in 1933 were reburied on the hill on 20 November 2007, and the cultural landscape was inscribed in 2003.
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