Drakensberg mountains, July 1962 |
 The Drakensberg’s dramatic amphitheatre at Mont-aux-Sources. The name Drakensberg is Afrikaans for Dragon Mountain, which is dramatic enough, but the Zulu name for the range, Quathlamba, is both more apt and even more impressive: it translates as the Barrier of Upturned Spears. The Mont-aux-Sources section of the Drakensberg was named by French missionaries in the 1830s because the plateau above the escarpment is the birthplace of some significant South African rivers. The imposing peak near the left-hand edge of the photograph is the Eastern Buttress; its counterpart on the right is Beacon Buttress. |