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South Africa Geology - South Africa Drakensberg - South Africa Lowveld - South Africa Highveld
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 As the relief map shows, South Africa is in the west, south and east surrounded by a cornice of mountains. This chain, consisting of many single mountain ranges, is known as the Great Escarpment. In the east, in the area of the Drakensberg of Natal and in the Kingdom of Lesotho, it reaches heights of almost 4,000 metres. In the south and west, the highest peaks are at a bout 2,000 metres. In front of the escarpment, there is a partially very narrow coastal strip, which is called the Lowveld. At the Indian Ocean, these coastal plains have high precipitations and are fertile. The western part, however, is, due to the cold Benguela current of the Atlantic, a coastal desert, reaching up to Namibia and Angola. After crossing the escarpment, one gets to the central high plateau of South Africa, called the Highveld. It has heights of between 1,000 and 1,700 metres. It slowly declines towards the north, to the Kalahari basin that doesn't have an outlet. Because the surrounding mountain chain forms a catchment area for the clouds from the sea, the precipitation on the Highveld is low which results in arid, semi-desert conditions. |
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The Geological Profile of
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