Heritage trail: from the Castle to Makhonjwa

A heritage trail through the provinces: the Castle, the Cape aloe, the Free State, Kaditshwene and Makhonjwa. Read one part at a time and tap “I know this”. Then test yourself in the quiz.

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The trail

Province	Heritage
Western Cape	The Castle: built by soldiers, sailors and enslaved people to protect the halfway station. It has had changing identities: a Dutch (VOC) fort and trading base, the governor’s home and offices, a prison, the British army’s headquarters, a base for the South African army, and today a museum and heritage site
Eastern Cape	The Cape aloe
Free State	Hobhouse (after Emily Hobhouse, who helped women and children in the war camps); the Sol Plaatje Dam (a writer who fought unfair laws); Lejweleputswa (“grey rock”)
North West	Kaditshwene
Mpumalanga	Makhonjwa Mountains: what early Earth and first life were like

Heritage trails help a province’s economy, because tourists spend money. Don’t write on or damage heritage buildings: they can’t be replaced and belong to all. Place names tell about the past.

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The Cape aloe

Only old lower leaves are cut, so the plant lives on.

The aloe grows wild mainly in the Eastern and Western Cape; Albertinia is known for aloe sap. Thick, fleshy leaves with sharp thorns; orange to red flowers in winter. The gel is used in skin creams, e.g. for sunburn. It is natural heritage: an indigenous plant we inherited from nature.

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Remember this and test yourself

Remember this: your summary

The Castle of Good Hope (Cape Town, 1666–1679) is the oldest colonial building still standing: a five-pointed star that replaced Van Riebeeck’s clay fort.
The Cape aloe (bitter aloe, Aloe ferox) has been medicine for centuries; probably first used by the Khoikhoi and San.
Gariep is the Nama name for the Orange River.
Kaditshwene (North West, near Zeerust) was the capital of the Bahurutshe, a Tswana group: a large stone-walled town with iron and copper furnaces. Around 1820 about 15 000 to 20 000 people lived there, about as many as in Cape Town at that time.
The Makhonjwa Mountains (Barberton, Mpumalanga) hold some of Earth’s oldest rocks; World Heritage Site since 2018.

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Memory trick

The Castle is a five-pointed star and the oldest colonial building still standing in South Africa.

Flash cards · Tap to turn over

Important words

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Test yourself · Part 2

True or false?

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