Heritage Sites series: uKhahlamba – Drakensberg Park Stamp issue date: 23 September 2008 All around the world there are places that are special and fragile, places that need to be protected, and in 1972 UNESCO started to do just that by proclaiming them World Heritage Sites. Twenty-seven years later, South Africa joined the club of world heritage hosts with the proclamation of Robben Island, the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park, and the fossil sites of Sterkfontein as world heritage sites. Consequently, stamps featuring these heritage sites were issued by the South African Post Office in the year 2000. The South African Post Office features heritage sites stamps occasionally as the sites are proclaimed. The heritage site to be featured on stamp on 14 March 2008 is Ukhahlamba – Drakensberg Park. The stamp features panoramic photographs taken by Koos van der Lende, with special lenses over long periods of exposure creating the magical images, which can be described as being painted with light. Ukhahlamba/Drakensberg Park the impressive bulk of the mountains the Zulus called Uhkahlamba - “the barrier of spears” - and the Voortrekker called the Drakensberg - the “dragon mountain” - is more than just a great place to visit. Forming the main watershed of the country, it separates the well-watered Indian Ocean coast from the drier, harsher interior and the beautifully bleak, almost deserted western Atlantic shore. The spectacular Drakensberg Mountains took their rightful place on the international tourism stage with the proclaiming of the 243 000 hectare uKhahlamba-Drakensberg Park in December 2000 as a World Heritage Site, significantly meeting the criteria for both cultural and natural properties. International recognition was granted in acknowledgement of the Park’s uniqueness of biological diversity; its endemic and endangered species; its superlative natural beauty and its masterpiece of human creative genius in the form of ten of thousands of San rock paintings - the last visible signs of the San people. Fabulous rock art tells the story of the San who lived there, and were pushed aside by more aggressive peoples. The San people are recognized as the indigenous inhabitants of the sub-continent. During the past centuries, they inhabited the entire sub-continent, and are regarded as “embodying the essence of southern Africa’s deep past”. Yet there is no monument to the San people - other than their own art. The oldest painting on a rock shelter wall in the park is about 2400 years old, while more recent creations date back to the late nineteenth century. Many of the sites contain scenes depicting hunting, dancing, fighting, food gathering or ritual and trance scenes of hunting or rainmaking. |