Sudwala Caves

Sudwala is cut into Precambrian dolomite, rock laid down some 2,800 million years ago, with the cave system itself formed far later - the operators put the caves at around 240 million years, which would make them among the oldest known. The standard tour goes through a series of chambers to the Amphitheatre, a large space with acoustics good enough that concerts have been held in it, and guides point out stromatolites in the walls: fossil structures built by colonies of blue-green algae, some of the earliest evidence of life on earth. Air moves through the system so it stays breathable deep in. A longer crystal tour, offered by arrangement, crawls through tighter passages to a chamber of aragonite crystals and takes several hours. The caves were used as a refuge in the nineteenth century and, according to the standard telling, as a hiding place for a Boer gold shipment that has never been found.

History

The caves lie in Precambrian dolomite laid down about 2.8 billion years ago and began to form about 240 million years ago, and stone tools suggest people sheltered here as early as the early Stone Age. In the early 1860s Somquba, brother of the Swazi king Mswati II, used the caves as a refuge for his followers and their cattle (Wikipedia, Sudwala Caves).

What you'll find

• The stromatolites - fossil algae colonies in the cave walls, among the oldest life traces.
• The Amphitheatre - a chamber with acoustics used for concerts.
• The ancient dolomite - rock roughly 2,800 million years old holding the system.
• The crystal tour - a long crawl to an aragonite chamber, by arrangement only.

When to go

All year - constant temperature inside. Two hours for the standard tour.

Things to know

Guided tours only, on a schedule, and the standard route is short. The crystal tour is several hours of crawling and not for the claustrophobic or unfit. It is humid inside. The lost-gold story is folklore, not documented history.

Nearby

The Sudwala dinosaur park is at the same site; Mbombela is east.

Key facts