Malindidzimu: View of the World

After being amazed by the beauty of Matopos, Zimbabwe, I thought it couldn't wow be any further.

I was wrong.  Fantastically wrong. The moment I climbed up "View of the World" and looked out here:

I knew why it was called View of the World.

When Cecil Rhodes (of the Rhodes Scholarship, of Rhodesia fame, of the diamonds in South Africa...)
climbed the hill, he instantly decided this was to be his burial place

Rhodes was buried at World's View in 1902 after dying in Cape Town.

Rhodes's grave.

His burial place is controversial as the hill, or Malindidzimu ("Place of Benevolent Spirits"), is a sacred place for the Ndebele people.
Rhodes happened upon it while responding to a Ndebele uprising.

As Rhodes's founding of Rhodesia (the predecessor to Zimbabwe) trampled on most of the rights of the Ndebele,
it is understanding why his burial and that of several other individuals who helped Rhodes at such a sacred spot is controversial.

The hill is covered in several different colors of lichen which creates such an unique and amazing kaleidoscope.

Malindidzimu just absolutely takes your breath away.  It is very easy to understand how such a spot can be sacred.

The hill also contains this monument with the remains of 33 men, led by Captain Allan Wilson, who pursued Ndebele chief Lobengula

out of his territory in 1893 but were routed in what some Ndebele consider their biggest victory.

Rhodes wished the memorial to be placed at View of the World.

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Balancing, Balancing Rocks!!

Zimbabwe's Matopos area is famous for its balancing rocks!

This one made me think of someone kneeling to pray.

Matobo National Park, an UNESCO world heritage site, is absolutely breathtaking, with granite scenery like I've never seen before.

It was a beautiful place simultaneously so desolate and so alive with life.

One of Matobo's dams--I think it's Togwana Dam.

One of the lakes formed by the dam.

Fishermen rest near a stork at the dam's lake.

More balancing rocks on a dwala ("whalebacks"...the gray granite hills rising above the landscape.)!
One writer wrote that to describe Matobos as "a place of natural beauty is something of an understatement."

A teaser for the next post,

we climbed one of the most beautiful granite hills to Malindidzimu ("Place of Benevolent Spirits") or the View of the World.

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Nswatugi: Ancient Cave Paintings

While staying at Camp Amalinda in the Matobo National Park (UNESCO World Heritage site), Zimbabwe, we hiked up to Nswatugi Cave.

The unassuming entrance to Nswatugi Cave.

The cave paintings are between six and ten thousand years old.  That's right: 6,000 - 10,000, as in the Late Stone Age.  Insane.

Here's a scene that includes giraffes, hunters, and kudu.

Ancient cave paintings in Africa very, very rarely include images of women.  Many believe this woman is a healer or rare female leader.

This is a close up of a scene of men, some with bows, hunting.

Kudus and a man.  In 1975, excavations found the oldest known skeleton in Zimbabwe:

a bushwoman, dated 9,500 years ago,

A better image of a man carrying a bow, just to the center of the image.

The view of Matopos from the entrance of the cave.  Nswatugi means "place of jumping" because according to legend

God made his earthly home in Matopos at Njelele Hill, landing from His first leap at Nswatugi hill, leaving a footprint in the hill's granite.

The footprint is a natural mark in the hill that has sadly been slowly destroyed by individuals.
And anyone who knows me in person knows I have a slight obsession with jumping photos.
Seems the perfect cave for me to have visited.

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