Pilanesberg's Ancient Dawn
Created 1,200 Million years ago
LAKE MANKWE – AT THE CRATER
ONCE A GIGANTIC VOLCANO
Pilanesberg is set in an extinct volcano which was once so tall it towered over Mount Kilimanjaro. The passage of 1200 million years has eroded most of the original crater, leaving three concentric circles of hills twenty-four kilometres in diameter, known as ring dykes, with the fabulously photogenic Lake Mankwe at the centre. Pilanesberg is one of only three ring dykes in all the world and is by far the best preserved, with its ancient origins lending an almost sacred mystique to this unique part of South Africa.
Evolution in action
There were no spectacular air-borne discharges – the changes to the Pilanesberg volcano occurred underground over several millennia, each eruption causing a number of concentric fractures into which the magma flowed and hardened. The ring dyke rock formations thus date from different periods - a geologist’s dream – with some of the atmosphere of a man-made iron age hill fort.
Nowadays, after millions of years of erosion, the remains of the volcano rise in a series of craggy hills and rocky bluffs from the surrounding grassland plain, creating a landscape that has the watermark of ancient history in it.