South Africa, occupying the southern tip of Africa, boasts one of the most diverse landscapes in the world. Its coastline stretches more than 2,850 kilometers (1,770 miles) from the desert border with Namibia on the Atlantic (western) coast, southwards around the tip of Africa, and then northeast to the border with Mozambique on the Indian (eastern) coast.
The region of southern Africa is located between roughly 10° S to 35° S (latitude) and 10° E to 40° E (longitude). The region is very diverse topographically (physical features), in climate and vegetation.
The topography of eastern South Africa is dominated by dramatic transitions. Along the coast, the individual mountain ranges of the Cape Fold Belt are interrupted by wide valleys that run from east to west. Beyond the northernmost of these ranges, the elevation drops off dramatically into an expansive basin called the Eastern Cape Karoo.
The country is divided into several distinct geographic regions: the high central plateau (known as the Highveld), the vast and arid Karoo, the fertile coastal belt, and rugged mountain areas like the Drakensberg.
The interior of Southern Africa consists of a series of undulating plateaus that cover most of South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana and extend into central Angola. Contiguous with this are uplands in Zambia and Zimbabwe. Coastal mountains and escarpments, flanking the high ground, are found in northern Mozambique, South Africa, Namibia, Angola, and along the Mozambique-Zimbabwe border. Coastal plains abut the Indian Ocean in Mozambique and the Atlantic in Angola and Namibia.
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The Kalahari desert forms the central depression of the Southern African plateau. Its elevation rises to the Great Escarpment, which flanks the plateau in an almost unbroken line from the Zambezi River to Angola.
Southern Zimbabwe and much of South Africa are within a region of scrublands and grasslands known as the veld. To the southeast of the veld is the Drakensberg range, which includes the region’s highest peak-Lesotho’s Mount Ntlenyana, at 11,424 feet (3,482 metres). In Namibia the coastal margin includes the extremely dry Namib desert, which, in the south, merges eastward into the great sandy expanse of the Kalahari.
Key Geographical Regions
Important geographical regions in South Africa. The thick line traces the course of the Great Escarpment which edges the central plateau.
None of the regions indicated on the map have sharp well-defined borders, except where the Escarpment, or a range of mountains forms a clear dividing line between two regions.
The Highveld
The Highveld is characterized by rolling grasslands, making it ideal for both agriculture and urban development, with cities like Johannesburg and Pretoria located here. The Highveld occupies the central eastern portion of the Plateau.
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It is generally between 1,500 - 2,100 m above sea level, highest on the edge of the Escarpment to the east (the Mpumalanga Drakensberg), and sloping downwards to the south and west.
The wettest and most fertile portion of the Central Plate is the Highveld, which occupies the central eastern portion of the Plateau. It is generally between 1,500 - 2,100 m above sea level, highest on the edge of the Escarpment to the east (the Mpumalanga Drakensberg), and sloping downwards to the south and west.
The southern boundary of Highveld is often taken to be the Orange River, from where the continuation of the plateau is known as the Great Karoo, except for a small strip just south of Lesotho which is often included in the Highveld. To the west the Highveld fades into the dry savannah of Griqualand West, beyond which lies the Kalahari desert.
It receives between 400 and 1200 mm of rain annually and is largely a flat grassland plain. Much of the area is devoted to commercial farming, but it also contains South Africa's largest conurbation in Gauteng Province, the centre of the gold mining industry. The land is generally flat or gently undulating.
The Karoo
To the southwest lies the majestic Cape Fold Belt, home to the famous Table Mountain and lush winelands. The western section of South Africa on the inland side of the Cape Fold Mountains is dominated by the Great Karoo, a semi-desert region that is divided by the Great Escarpment into the Upper Karoo (at an elevation of 1,100-1,600 m) and the Lower Karoo (at an elevation of 600-800 m).
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The Great Karoo is separated from the Little Karoo by the Swartberg mountain range. It lies in a 290 km long, narrow (40-60 km wide) valley in of the Cape Fold Mountains, with the Swartberg range to the north and the Langeberg-Outeniqua range to the south. It is as arid as the Great Karoo, except along the foothills of the Swartberg, which are well-watered by streams that cascade down the mountains.
Flat topped hills (called Karoo Koppies) are highly characteristic of the southern and southwestern Great Karoo landscape (especially on the Central Plateau). These hills are capped by hard, erosion resistant dolerite sills. This is solidified lava that was forced under high pressure between the horizontal strata of the sedimentary rocks that make up most of the Karoo's geology. This occurred about 182 million years ago, when huge volumes of lava were extruded over most of Southern Africa and adjoining regions of Gondwana, both on the surface and deep below the surface between the sedimentary strata. The resultant bulging of what later became Southern Africa heralded the break-up of Gondwana. Since this massive extrusion of lava, Southern Africa has undergone a prolonged period of erosion exposing the older softer rocks, except where they were protected by a cap of dolerite.
The Drakensberg
The portion of the Great Escarpment that could be designated a "mountain" is where it forms the international border between KwaZulu-Natal and Lesotho. Panorama of the Giant's Castle region of the Drakensberg, the highest section of the Great Escarpment.
Along the eastern coastline, subtropical forests and wetlands dominate, while the northwest features the arid Kalahari Desert.
The Lowveld
The South African portion of the coastal strip between the Limpopo and Mpumalanga Drakensberg and the ocean, together with the Limpopo River valley, is called the Lowveld. These lowlands, below about 500 m (1,640 ft) altitude, form South Africa's northern border with Botswana and Zimbabwe, where a 180‑million-year-old failed rift valley cuts into Southern Africa's central plateau and locally obliterates the Great Escarpment.
The Limpopo and Save rivers run from the central African highlands via the Lowveld into the Indian Ocean to the east. The Limpopo Lowveld extends southwards, east of the Drakensberg escarpment through Mpumalanga Province and ultimately into eastern Eswatini.
The Lowveld partly overlaps with a dry savanna ecoregion known as the Bushveld, a basin characterized by open grasslands with scattered trees and bushes. Elevation varies between 600 metres and about 900 metres above sea level.
The Cape Fold Belt
In the southwest, running parallel to the coastline, the mountains of the Cape Fold Belt form a series of ranges that run in the form of an "L" by a series running north-south, and another set running east-west, with the junction between the two at the Cape Peninsula.
The mountains of the Cape Fold Belt form the southern and western boundaries of the Great Karoo.
Climate and Vegetation
Southern African climates are seasonal, ranging from arid to semiarid and from temperate to tropical. The seasonality is an important control on plant growth and a regulator of river flows. Droughts are common in much of the region.
Although much of the country is classified as semi-arid, it has considerable variation in climate as well as topography.
South Africa is famous for its sunshine - an average of 2,500 hours of sun every year. It’s a dry country, classified as semi-arid. The average annual rainfall for the whole of South Africa is about 464 mm.
| Region | Rainfall Pattern |
|---|---|
| Most of South Africa | Rain only in the summer |
| Cape Peninsula | Mediterranean climate: cold, rainy winters and clear-sky summers |
| Great inland Karoo plateau | Dry, gets drier in the northwest towards the Kalahari desert |
| Highveld region north of the Vaal River | Wetter, with milder weather and less extreme subtropical heat |
The region around the Cape Peninsula, including Cape Town, has a Mediterranean climate: cold and miserable rain in winter, balanced by glorious clear-sky summers. The great inland Karoo plateau, where rocky hills rise from scrubland, is dry, and gets drier in the northwest towards the Kalahari desert.
The semiarid plains and plateaus that cover much of the region contain animals commonly associated with the East African plains-e.g., antelopes, gazelles, zebras, elephants, and the big cats. However, different animals are found in the coastal woodlands of South Africa and in the desert regions to the north and northwest.
Many habitats have been extensively modified by agriculture, thus restricting the ranges of certain species that were formerly more widespread. There are some two dozen large national parks and game reserves in the area as well as many smaller ones, most located in the open or partially wooded plains.
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At the beginning of the 21st century, several transfrontier parks were opening, including Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, the first transnational park, and the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, among the largest parks in the world.
These continental landscape features were created over millions of years by erosion. Erosion is also taking place on smaller and shorter time scales. The introduction of too many livestock to the area during European colonization initiated a cycle of erosion and land degradation that created badlands and gullies.
