Post by L Roebuck on Dec 14, 2005 14:28:14 GMT -5
Centre to showcase humanity's African origins
More than half a million people a year are expected to pass through a new visitors centre at the Cradle of Humankind, in Gauteng, officials said yesterday, at the official launch of the multimillion-rand facility, voted earlier this year by the British Guild of Travel as the best new tourism project in the world.
The entire Cradle of Humankind development project is valued at R347-million.
Senior government officials, academics and ambassadors from over 40 countries gathered, as President Thabo Mbeki officially opened what has become known as one of the world's most important paleontological sites, home to fossils from the earliest human, dating back four million years ago.
The name of the centre, 'Maropeng' is a Setswana word, which Gauteng Premier Mbazima Shilowa yesterday translated as “returning to the place where we live”.
The 47 000 ha Cradle of Humankind was declared a South African World Heritage Site in December 1999, and boasts the richest sites and findings of homonid fossils anywhere in the world.
The world-famous Mrs Ples - the skull of a species that predates Homo sapiens and whose brain was three times smaller than that of modern-day humans - was found in 1947.
Mrs Ples, which recent studies show may have been a male, lived over two-million years ago and the discovery of the fossil provided the first strong evidence establishing Africa as the cradle of humankind.
The second key discovery, 'Little Foot', an almost complete skeleton, dates back to some four million years ago, was found in 1994 in the Sterkfontein caves, where some of the fossils remain, sealed off from the public.
Scientists have been working in caves at what is now the Cradle of Humankind since 1936.
In fact, the Sterkfontein caves are the oldest continuous paleoanthropological dig in the world, and more than 800 hominid fossils have been found in the area.
A number of fossils are on display in the underground exhibition centre, as well as homonid models which provide a lifelike representation of what some of man's earliest ancestors looked like.
However, Shilowa explained that a decision had been taken to preserve the excavation sites at the Stekfontein caves, to allow paleontologists to continue to work, undisturbed by the huge numbers of tourists expected to visit the area.
“Through Maropeng, a R189-million tourism public private sector partnership project, we offer the people of the world the opportunity to connect with the golden chain of life and to our human evolution,” Mbeki said.
The Gauteng Provincial Government, through its Blue IQ infrastructure-investment programme, has invested R250-million towards infrastructure and tourism development at the site, including the development of the Maropeng visitors centre through a public private partnership with the University of the Witwatersrand and the Maropeng a'Afrika Leisure consortium, which will also operate the centre for the next ten years.
The new facilities comprise two main developments.
A visitor facility at the Sterkfontein caves, which was officially opened last month and includes a cave tour and walkways, a small restaurant and conference centre, and a retail outlet.
The flagship attraction, however, in the Maropeng visitors centre, which comprises an interpretation centre, where visitors explore the history of the earth and humankind, viewing decks, a 5 000-seat outdoor ampitheatre, a craft market, gift shops, restaurants and an underground exhibition centre and lake.
Shilowa also called for the drawing up of an integrated tourism strategy for Gauteng as well as for the whole of South Africa.
“We must ask - how can we use all the different attractions to form a broader chain, without having them compete against each other for the status of 'flavour of the month'?”, he said.
www.engineeringnews.co.za/eng/news/today/?show=78759
More than half a million people a year are expected to pass through a new visitors centre at the Cradle of Humankind, in Gauteng, officials said yesterday, at the official launch of the multimillion-rand facility, voted earlier this year by the British Guild of Travel as the best new tourism project in the world.
The entire Cradle of Humankind development project is valued at R347-million.
Senior government officials, academics and ambassadors from over 40 countries gathered, as President Thabo Mbeki officially opened what has become known as one of the world's most important paleontological sites, home to fossils from the earliest human, dating back four million years ago.
The name of the centre, 'Maropeng' is a Setswana word, which Gauteng Premier Mbazima Shilowa yesterday translated as “returning to the place where we live”.
The 47 000 ha Cradle of Humankind was declared a South African World Heritage Site in December 1999, and boasts the richest sites and findings of homonid fossils anywhere in the world.
The world-famous Mrs Ples - the skull of a species that predates Homo sapiens and whose brain was three times smaller than that of modern-day humans - was found in 1947.
Mrs Ples, which recent studies show may have been a male, lived over two-million years ago and the discovery of the fossil provided the first strong evidence establishing Africa as the cradle of humankind.
The second key discovery, 'Little Foot', an almost complete skeleton, dates back to some four million years ago, was found in 1994 in the Sterkfontein caves, where some of the fossils remain, sealed off from the public.
Scientists have been working in caves at what is now the Cradle of Humankind since 1936.
In fact, the Sterkfontein caves are the oldest continuous paleoanthropological dig in the world, and more than 800 hominid fossils have been found in the area.
A number of fossils are on display in the underground exhibition centre, as well as homonid models which provide a lifelike representation of what some of man's earliest ancestors looked like.
However, Shilowa explained that a decision had been taken to preserve the excavation sites at the Stekfontein caves, to allow paleontologists to continue to work, undisturbed by the huge numbers of tourists expected to visit the area.
“Through Maropeng, a R189-million tourism public private sector partnership project, we offer the people of the world the opportunity to connect with the golden chain of life and to our human evolution,” Mbeki said.
The Gauteng Provincial Government, through its Blue IQ infrastructure-investment programme, has invested R250-million towards infrastructure and tourism development at the site, including the development of the Maropeng visitors centre through a public private partnership with the University of the Witwatersrand and the Maropeng a'Afrika Leisure consortium, which will also operate the centre for the next ten years.
The new facilities comprise two main developments.
A visitor facility at the Sterkfontein caves, which was officially opened last month and includes a cave tour and walkways, a small restaurant and conference centre, and a retail outlet.
The flagship attraction, however, in the Maropeng visitors centre, which comprises an interpretation centre, where visitors explore the history of the earth and humankind, viewing decks, a 5 000-seat outdoor ampitheatre, a craft market, gift shops, restaurants and an underground exhibition centre and lake.
Shilowa also called for the drawing up of an integrated tourism strategy for Gauteng as well as for the whole of South Africa.
“We must ask - how can we use all the different attractions to form a broader chain, without having them compete against each other for the status of 'flavour of the month'?”, he said.
www.engineeringnews.co.za/eng/news/today/?show=78759