Though people have occupied the area for at least 12,500 years, it doesn't seems as if the caves were used extensively. Excavations in Gcwihaba Caverns (in 1969 by Yellen, et al) did find evidence of charcoal, ostrich eggshell and bone fragments, thought to be the remnants of human occupation, but the finds were limited and there is no rock art here at all.

These caves were first brought to the attention of the outside world in June 1932 when the local !Kung people showed the cave to a farmer from Ghanzi, Martinus Drotsky. Hence for many years this was known as 'Drotsky's Cave.' (As an aside, Martinus was the grandfather of Jan Drotsky who currently runs Drotsky's Cabins, near Shakawe.)

The local !Kung refer to these hills as '/twihaba' – and hence now the hills and main cave and this cave system are now usually referred to as the Gcwihaba Hills and Caverns, respectively. (Although you'll see this spelt in a variety of ways in various publications.)

Since then, they were declared a national monument in 1934 and the Director of the Bechwanaland Geological Survey visited the caverns with Drotsky in 1943. The first cave survey was undertaken in 1970 by a school group from Falcon College in Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia). Various scientific explorations and surveys have been done since then, including an expedition in October 1991 by the British School's Exploring Society (including Heather Tyrrell, one of the contributors to this book).

Nowhere else in this area has had as much time or attention given to it as the Gcwihaba Caverns have had, though the two sinkholes in the Aha Hills have been surveyed on at least two occasions, most recently by the BSES in 1991.