Year inscribed: 2000
Location: KwaZulu-Natal, 29º 23' S 29º 32' 26" E
Type: Mixed cultural and natural heritage
The uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park has outstanding natural beauty and a high diversity of habitats, and is Southern Africa's highest mountain range. The park also has the largest and most concentrated series of rock art paintings in Africa. These two formidable reasons make it a World Heritage site of both natural and cultural significance.
The uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park lies in the west of South Africa's KwaZulu Natal province on the Lesotho border. The World Heritage Site covers an area of 243 000 hectares and stretches 150 kilometres from Royal Natal National Park in the north to Cobham Forest Station in the south.
Both the Zulu name uKhahlamba (barrier of spears) and the Afrikaans name Drakensberg (dragon mountains) fit the formidable horizon created by the almost impenetrable mountain range.
The uKhahlamba Drakensberg mountains are capped by a massive basalt layer belonging to the Stormberg series of 150 million years ago and set on-top of a broad base of sedimentary rocks. The mountains are South Africa's main watershed.
For more than 4 000 years the uKhahlamba Drakensberg mountain range was home to the indigenous San people, who created the vast body of rock art that has been recognised by the World Heritage Committee.
Living in the sandstone caves and rock shelters of the Drakensberg's valleys, the San made paintings described by the World Heritage Committee as "world famous and widely considered one of the supreme achievements of humankind … outstanding in quality and diversity of subject and in their depiction of animals and human beings … which throws much light on their way of life and their beliefs".
In describing the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park's natural heritage, the committee notes its "exceptional natural beauty in its soaring basaltic buttresses, incisive dramatic cutbacks and golden sandstone ramparts. Rolling high altitude grasslands, the pristine steep-sided river valleys and rocky gorges also contribute to the beauty of the site.
"The site's diversity of habitats protects a high level of endemic and globally threatened species, especially birds and plants."
South Africa's seven World Heritage Sites are:
 Cradle of Humankind
Greater St Lucia Wetland Park
Robben Island
uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park
Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape
Cape Floral Region
Vredefort Dome
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