Matobo Hills
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How it came to be
The Matobo Hills are a granite landscape about 35 km south of Bulawayo in southern Zimbabwe, covering some 3,100 km2, of which 424 km2 is national park. Granite forced to the surface more than 2 billion years ago has weathered into smooth domes and piles of balanced boulders.
The boulders offered shelter, and UNESCO records human occupation from the Early Stone Age through to early historical times. Excavations at Pomongwe Cave produced 39,032 stone tools and several hearths, and more than 3,000 rock art sites have been registered in the hills, many of the paintings left by San people who lived here about 2,000 years ago.
The hills are sacred to the Shona and Ndebele; before the colonial era they were the seat of the oracle known as the Mlimo, and shrines are still used for ritual. In 1896, during the Second Matabele War, they were the scene of the indaba between white settlers and Ndebele leaders. In 1926 Zimbabwe's oldest national park was created here from a bequest of Cecil Rhodes, and the hills were inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2003.
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