issue 4 digital FINAL

Heritage Travel
SA’S UNIQUE WORLD
HERITAGE SITES
By Stef Terblanche
Heritage and cultural travel has taken
off around the world as one of the
most exciting and fastest growing
tourism sectors. It should come as
no surprise that South Africa – with
its cultural diversity, rich and eventful
history, archaeological treasure
troves, and its unbeatable natural
scenery – should rate among the top
heritage travel destinations in the
world.
And while tourists from all over the world flock here to experience
this offering, many South Africans don’t realise that they have
no fewer than eight UNESCO World Heritage Sites, as well as
numerous heritage, historical and cultural routes and sites, right
here on their doorstep.
South Africa is widely recommended by travel associations,
heritage organisations and even the likes of National Geographic
magazine as one of the world’s top heritage travel destinations for
anyone interested in cultural and natural history.
In terms of an international convention signed by 192 states to
preserve unique and significant sites of cultural, historical, scientific
or other significance around the world, the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), has
since 1972 designated 1,052 such sites as being World Heritage
Sites. Eight of these are in South Africa, including perhaps one of
the most significant of them all…the Cradle of Humankind, or the
place where it all started for all human beings on Earth.
Just an hour’s drive northwest of Johannesburg, lies this
phenomenal site with its amazing fossil record preserved in the
limestone caves beneath the surface, trapping 3.5-million years of
human history right there. This is the place where scientists say the
human race originated, and a place that may well be the biblical
Paradise of Adam and Eve. Which one of the Earth’s 7.36-billion
people could be indifferent to this, our shared ancestral home?
While South Africa has eight designated UNESCO World Heritage
Sites, together they offer a far larger collection of sub-sites or
representative protected areas. For instance, one South African
site, the Cape Floral Region, contains in itself eight representative
protected areas across a region covering 78,555 km² that stretches
along the coastal areas from the Western Cape through the Eastern
Cape.
For a closer look at South Africa’s unique World Heritage Sites, let’s
go on a brief tour of each one.
28 |ISSUE 4|www.mzanzitravel.co.za | MZANZI TRAVEL