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The Drakensberg is the highest mountain range in South Africa, reaching 3 482m in height. The range is also home to the world's second-highest waterfall, the Tugela Falls, with a total drop of 947m. The Drakensberg is located in the eastern part of South Africa, looming over the nearby KwaZulu-Natal coast and separating it from the Free State province. In total, it runs for some 1000km from south-west to north-east. The range drains on the western slopes into the Orange and Vaal rivers, and into the Tugela and a number of smaller rivers to the east and south.
In Zulu the range is referred to as "uKhahlamba" meaning "barrier of spears" and in Sotho as "Maluti" or "Maloti", while “Drakensberge” means “Dragon's Mountains” in Afrikaans. The mountains are home to aquatic forest, scrub, fynbos, savannah, mountain grassland and heath plant families, including a large number of species listed in the Red Data Book of threatened plants, with 119 species listed as globally endangered. Of the over 2000 plant species here, almost 100 are endemic. The area is also home to 299 recorded bird species, making up 37% of all non-marine avian species in Southern Africa.
Geologically, the range resembles the Simien Mountains in Ethiopia - caves are frequent in the easily eroded sandstone and many house original Bushmen rock paintings. In fact, the Drakensberg has between 35,000 and 40,000 works of bushmen art - the largest and most concentrated group of rock paintings south of the Sahara. This art is outstanding in both quality and diversity of subject.
The Drakensberg's highest peak is Thabana Ntlenyana at 3,482m (11 420 ft), bordering on Lesotho. Other notable peaks are also nearby, including Mafadi at 3 450m, Makoaneng at 3,416m, Njesuthi at 3,408m, Champagne Castle at 3,377m, Giant's Castle at 3,315m and Ben Macdhui at 3,001m. North of Lesotho the range becomes lower and less rugged until entering Mpumalanga where the quartzite mountains of the Transvaal Drakensberg are more broken
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