Magaliesberg, West Rand, Gauteng - Property, Accommodation and Conference Venues

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Magaliesberg in the West Rand Region of Gauteng, South Africa
Magaliesberg is an area of extraordinary diversity and a fascinating region to explore. Here you will discover the spectacular beauty of the Magaliesberg mountain range, the earliest history of mankind, wonderful birds, flowers and wildlife, exciting adventures, fun-filled activities to suit every interest, and a host of places to stay.

The Magaliesberg mountains offer many routes to rock climbers and details can be obtained from the Mountain Club of Pretoria. Hot-Air ballooning and hang-gliding are also carried out in the area. There are a great many attractions in and around the village of Magaliesberg. There is a fish farm, a trout farm, the Buffelspoort Holiday Resort, antique shops, a game lodge and a lion park, steam train rides and art galleries. The Magaliesberg region of Gauteng offers just about any tourist attraction and outdoor activity that you can imagine, and has become probably the most regularly visited region by the people of Gauteng.

The Magaliesberg range forms a natural barrier between the lower lying Bushveld to the north and the cooler Highveld to the south. The range receives rainfall in summer in the form of thunderstorms, with an average of 650mmm annually. In winter frost occurs frequently in the valleys on the southern side of the mountain, but almost never on the northern slopes.

The Magaliesberg Range has a very long geological history. Its quartzites, shales, chert and dolomite were deposited as sediments in an inland basin on top of the 3 billion year old Archaean Basement Complex. This process of sedimentation lasted for about 300 million years. About 2 billion years ago a massive upwelling of molten magma resulted in what is now known as the Bushveld Igneous Complex. The enormous weight of this intrusion depressed the sediments that lay beneath and tilted the sediments along the edges so that the broken scarps faced outward and upward, and the gentler dip slopes inward. During the same period these sediments were fractured and igneous intrusions of dolerite filled the cracks. With the passage of time these intrusions eroded, especially on the dip slopes, forming deep kloofs or ravines providing excellent rock-climbing potential to modern man. This large dogbone-shaped area is now termed the Transvaal Basin and includes the lofty escarpment of the Transvaal Drakensberg overlooking the Lowveld in the eastern part of the country. Massive outpourings of igneous material of the much younger Karroo System later covered the Transvaal Basin, but this was subsequently eroded so that it only remains along the Transvaal Basin's southern rim.

 

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