with photographs by Lex Hes South Africa is a land of hauntingly beautiful and diverse landscapes. Its wild places encompass rugged mountain ranges, sweeping sand beaches, indigenous coastal forest, and sun-blistered arid plains, with each environment supporting its own distinctive plant and animal life. The beauty and diversity of South Africa's unspoiled and untamed places are celebrated in this latest addition to the Wild Places of the World series. South Africa's topography is characterized by a great interior plateau fringed on three sides by an irregular chain of mountains and hills that descend to a narrow coastal strip. The chapters focus on each ecological region in turn, from the Maputaland, a wetland area of great natural diversity, to the mountains of the Cape and Natal, the desert lands of the Karoo and the Kalahari, the coastal zone, the highveld grasslands, and the bushveld. The main focus is on wilderness areas and national parks, each chosen for its wild, unspoiled character, and the book emphasizes the need to preserve the country's natural heritage in a time of increasing demands for human development. Wild South Africacontains 350 stunning full-color photographs that illustrate all aspects of Nature's cycles in each region. The book features the uniqueness of each region's fauna, flora, and geography, from tiny insects, birds, and larger mammals to fruits, flowers, and sweeping landscapes.

This book provides a benchmark study of southern African landscape evolution during the Quaternary, for researchers, professionals and policymakers.

In 1510, when the Cape of Good Hope was still revered as the Portal to the Indies, the Viceroy of Portuguese India was led ashore, attacked, slain and hurriedly buried in a shallow grave. The murder of Dom Francisco d'Almeida remains a mystery to this day. Was it the fulfilment of a prophecy or an act of poetic justice? Was it an ambush, a mutiny or even an assassination? If so, was it instigated by the King of Portugal or the Church of Rome?Knot of Stone is a tale of historical detection in which two unlikely travel companions - a restless Dutch historian, Sonja Haas, and a jaded Afrikaans archaeologist, Jason Tomas - find themselves drawn together after discovering a five-century-old skeleton at the foot of Table Mountain. Their search for new evidence leads the reader ever further north to ancestral burial sites, remote mountain sanctuaries, sacred springs, medieval monasteries and rare museum artefacts. Via various roadside encounters, including the startling revelations of a sangoma (a healer empowered by the ancestors), they reconstruct the past and their own identities, with divergent consequences. The multi-layered story is ultimately a tale of self-discovery.As a novel, Knot of Stone presents a unique and insightful revision of actual events, offering a courageous departure from mainstream historical writing. With its captivating mystery, its mixture of legend and original research, plus the karmic background of various historical individuals, this enthralling book will appeal to all those who have enjoyed the enigmatic works of Umberto Eco and Dan Brown.www.knotofstone.com

This revised and updated edition provides a comprehensive synthesis of Southern Africa's archaeology over more than 3 million years.

Detailed and timely information on accommodations, restaurants, and local attractions highlight these updated travel guides, which feature all-new covers, a two-color interior design, symbols to indicate budget options, must-see ratings, multi-day itineraries, Smart Travel Tips, helpful bulleted maps, tips on transportation, guidelines for shopping excursions, and other valuable features. Original.

Situated between the Hottentots Holland Mountains and the Breede River, the Overberg is a fertile agricultural region and a popular holiday destination for tourists and nature lovers who delight in the beauty of its mountainous landscape, abundant plant species and long sandy beaches. This area also has a rich history going back thousands of years, when the indigenous Khoi people originally thrived there, and when the first European settlers left their own indelible imprint on the culture, architecture and character of the region. The Overberg has been a home or point of interest for explorers, innovators, artists and writers, for figures as varied as Bartolomeu Dias, Sir David de Villiers Graaff, Uys Krige and Audrey Blignault. Some of South Africa’s oldest towns, houses and missionary stations can be found here, and its treacherous coastline has been the cause of hundreds of shipwrecks for centuries. The Historical Overberg provides a detailed account of this past by pointing out the many places, buildings, events and personalities that have made the Overberg the diverse and unique place that it is today. Enlivened by historical and current photographs and informative panels, this book is a collector’s item.