MATOBO HILLS

 

The Matobo National Park forms the core of the Matobo or Matopos Hills, an area of granite kopjes and wooded valleys commencing some 35 kilometres  south of Bulawayo, southern Zimbabwe. The hills were formed over 2 billion years ago with granite being forced to the surface, this has eroded to produce smooth "whaleback dwalas" and broken kopjes, strewn with boulders and interspersed with thickets of vegetation. Matopo/Matob was named by the Lozwi, who are the ancestors of Kalanga. A different tradition states that the first King , Mzilikazi Khumalo when told by the local residents that the great granite domes were called madombo he replied , possible half jest, "We will call them matobo" - an IsiNdebele play on 'Bald heads'.

 

The Matopos balancing rocks are the burial place of Cecil John Rhodes. Commanding a vista clear to the horizon, the name "Worlds View", could not be more appropriate for this enchanting piece of Zimbabwe.