The famous 'Mrs Ples', a 2 million year old skull.

An hour’s drive from the bustling metropolis of Johannesburg one can find the Cradle of Humankind, a truly remarkable place that is sure to leave you dizzy trying to grasp the developments of life and our species on this planet.  Occupying 47 000 hectares of land and an official World Heritage Site since 1999, the Cradle of Humankind consists of 15 major fossil sites – sites where fossils of our ancestors have been discovered that date back over 3 million years!  The most famous of these sites, Sterkfontein Caves has produced over a third of early hominid fossils ever found.  Most scientists now agree that all humanity has a common heritage that begun in Africa, and nowhere else is this more evident than at the Cradle of Humankind.

Maropeng

Being such an important place not only to Johannesburg and South Africa, but to the entire world and everyone alive, the Cradle of Humankind has become a huge attraction to people from far and wide.  To this effort there has been a dual effort to add tourism infrastructure in the forms of exhibition and recreational facilities, hotels, and restaurants, while maintaining ongoing scientific explorations and conservation efforts.  This is evident in the Maropeng Visitor’s Centre, a highlight of any trip to the Cradle.  Maropeng, a Setswana term that literally means ‘returning to the place of origin’, is a state of the art exhibition centre that will take its visitors on a ride from the creation of the universe during the Big Bang 14 billion years ago all the way to the present.  On the way we stop and examine how the Earth came into being from a ball of burning gas 4.6 billion years ago and then move forward to 3.8 billion years ago when life first emerged on the planet.  Moving swiftly along, we find out how the earth has been rocked by 5 major extinctions, the last being only 65 million years ago when a meteor impact killed off the giant reptilian dinosaurs.

By all accounts nothing very exciting happened for the next 60 million years or so, the dinosaurs were dead and gone.  Larger, stronger and better adapted mammals developed and took their place.  Nothing exciting that is, until some primates began to shake things up.  This is where the Cradle of Humankind and Maropeng really come into their own.  From our 3 million old relative, Australopithicus Africanus, discovered in the Sterkfontein Caves, all the way to modern humans, Homo sapiens, that emerged only 200 000 years ago.  May seem like a long time, but in the grander scheme of things, as this brilliant exhibit demonstrates, it’s just a blink of the eye.  Maropeng, with its state of the art displays and unrivalled collection of human and early hominid fossils, tells the unbelievable story of humanities development and growth, development of language and technology.  Perhaps the greatest story ever told, and Maropeng does it amazingly.

Sterkfontein Caves

From the riveting history lesson at Maropeng, one can visit Sterkfontein Caves for a more ‘in depth’ and close up look at where and how these amazing discoveries were made.  After learning about the famous fossils that came out of these caves and their historical significance, visitors can then take a tour of these magnificent caves.  Some of the more incredible finds here have been evidence of controlled fire that is 1 million years old as well as ‘Little Foot’, an almost complete Australopithicus Africanus skeleton that is over 3 million years old.

For more information check out Allabout’s listing or visit Maropeng’s website.