World Heritage Identification Number: 985
World Heritage since: 2000
Category: Mixed Cultural Heritage and Natural Heritage
WHE Type: Protected Areas & National Parks
Transboundary Heritage: Yes
Endangered Heritage: No
Country: Lesotho, South Africa
Continent: Africa
UNESCO World Region: Africa
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A Transboundary Treasure: The Maloti-Drakensberg Park
The Maloti-Drakensberg Park, a transnational World Heritage Site, straddles the border between South Africa and Lesotho, showcasing a breathtaking fusion of geological wonders, rich biodiversity, and cultural heritage. Established in 2000, it encompasses two distinct yet interconnected protected areas: the uKhahlamba Drakensberg National Park in South Africa and the Sehlathebe National Park in Lesotho.
More to come…UNESCO Description of the World Heritage Site
The Maloti-Drakensberg Park is a transnational property composed of the uKhahlamba Drakensberg National Park in South Africa and the Sehlathebe National Park in Lesotho. The site has exceptional natural beauty in its soaring basaltic buttresses, incisive dramatic cutbacks, and golden sandstone ramparts as well as visually spectacular sculptured arches, caves, cliffs, pillars and rock pools. The site's diversity of habitats protects a high level of endemic and globally important plants. The site harbors endangered species such as the Cape vulture (Gyps coprotheres) and the bearded vulture (Gypaetus barbatus). Lesotho’s Sehlabathebe National Park also harbors the Maloti minnow (Pseudobarbus quathlambae), a critically endangered fish species only found in this park. This spectacular natural site contains many caves and rock-shelters with the largest and most concentrated group of paintings in Africa south of the Sahara. They represent the spiritual life of the San people, who lived in this area over a period of 4,000 years.
UNESCO Justification of the World Heritage Site
Criterion (i): The rock art of the Maloti-Drakensberg Park is the largest and most concentrated group of rock paintings in Africa south of the Sahara and is outstanding both in quality and diversity of subject.
Criterion (iii): The San people lived in the mountainous Maloti-Drakensberg area for more than four millennia, leaving behind them a corpus of outstanding rock art, providing a unique testimony which throws much light on their way of life and their beliefs.
Criterion (vii): The site has exceptional natural beauty with soaring basaltic buttresses, incisive dramatic cutbacks and golden sandstone ramparts. Rolling high altitude grasslands, the pristine steep-sided river valleys and rocky gorges also contribute to the beauty of the site.
Criterion (x): The property contains significant natural habitats for in situ conservation of biological diversity. It has outstanding species richness, particularly of plants. It is recognised as a Global Centre of Plant Diversity and endemism, and occurs within its own floristic region – the Drakensberg Alpine Region of South Africa. It is also within a globally important endemic bird area and is notable for the occurrence of a number of globally threatened species, such as the Yellow-breasted Pipit. The diversity of habitats is outstanding, ranging across alpine plateaux, steep rocky slopes and river valleys. These habitats protect a high level of endemic and threatened species.
Encyclopedia Record: Maloti-Drakensberg Park
The Maloti-Drakensberg Park is a World Heritage Site, established on 11 June 2001 by linking the Sehlabathebe National Park in the Kingdom of Lesotho and the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The highest peak is Thaba Ntlenyana rising to 3,482 metres.Additional Site Details
Area: 249,313 hectares
Number of Components: 2
(iii) — Unique or exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition
(vii) — Contains superlative natural phenomena or beauty
(x) — Contains most important habitats for biodiversity
Coordinates: -29.7652777778 , 29.1230555556
IUCN World Heritage Outlook
The 2025 Conservation Outlook on Maloti-Drakensberg Park reports the following assessment:
Source: International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) · View assessment
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© Francesco Bandarin, CC BY-SA 3.0 igo Resized from original. (This derivative is under the same CC BY-SA license.)