Botswana Travel Guide
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Okavango Panhandle & NW Kalahari
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NW Kalahari
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Tsodilo Hills
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Botswana Travel Guide

Tsodilo Hills



Rising to 400m above the monotony of the Kalahari's thick bush, archaeologists say that the hills have been sporadically inhabited for about 30,000 years – making this one of the world's oldest historical sites. For only about the last millennia has this included Bantu people: previously, for thousands of years, the San lived here, hunting, using springs in the hills for water and painting animals (over 2,000 of them) on the rocks.

For both San and Bantu, the Tsodilo Hills were a mystical place, 'home of very old and very great spirits' who demanded respect from visitors. As told in The Lost World of the Kalahari they created much trouble for some of the first Europeans to visit – as recently as the 1950s. Long ago it must have been, in van der Post's words,

... a great fortress of living bushman culture, a Louvre of the desert filled with treasure'

The Tsodilo Hills remain a remarkable place, an important national monument and, in December 2001, was declared Botswana's only World Heritage Site. Whilst this should help to safeguard the hills for future generations, I can't visit without wondering what it was like when the San were here. What we regard now as the high art of an ancient people is remarkable, but it's very sad that our understanding of it is now devoid of the meaning and spirituality with which it was once imbued.

It's really worth spending several days here to search out the paintings of the Tsodilo Hills. It's a long drive across deep Kalahari sand to get here, and once you're here then even just exploring the marked trails can easily take three or four days, though a longer stay would be better.

However, after several visits over the years, I am left remembering the captivating feeling of spirituality in the hills far more than simply the images of the paintings, however remarkable. I've known this to disturb some visitors profoundly; they were uneasy to the point of wanting to flee the hills, and couldn't wait to get away – whilst others find the hills entrancing and completely magical.

So if you come here, then do so with respect and take some time to stay here – don't just come to tick it off your itinerary and leave.

A word of warning


In The Lost World of the Kalahari, you can read Laurens van der Post's story of his first visit to the hills. Of how his party had ignored the advice of their guide, and thus disturbed the spirits of the hills, by hunting warthog and steenbok on their way. Once at the hills, his companion's camera magazines inexplicably kept jamming, his tape recorders stopped working, and bees repeatedly attacked his group – and the problems only ceased when they made a written apology to the spirits.

So perhaps the spirits here are one more reason why you ought to treat the Tsodilo Hills with the very greatest of respect when you visit them.


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