“Mrs Ples” is the nickname for the perfect parts of a fossilized skull found at  Sterkfontein Caves, about 20 minutes drive from Magaliesburg. This skull has shown that man was in the Magaliesberg region as long as 2 million years ago. Mrs Ples, who is probably in fact an adolescent male, was discovered by Dr Robert Broom in 1947 at Sterkfontein Caves. It is believed to be a distant relative of all humankind. It has a small cranium and unquestionably stood upright, like humans. Mrs Ples is in the genus Australopithecus africanus and is believed to be between 2.5 and 3 million years old. Many people have lived in the region over hundreds of thousands of years, leaving evidence of different lifestyles, cultures and technologies from primitive societies through to the Late Iron Age and beyond. The tribes of the descendants of the earliest proto-hominids had free reign in the tranquil valley. They fished and hunted the vast herds of animals with tools made initially from stone and later forged from iron. Man lived in total harmony with nature, which flourished in abundance in the greater Magaliesburg Area for the two million years of his development.

1800's Tswana migration The Twana peoples ancestors migrated through Zambia and Botswana and settled in groups all over the highveld. A group of Kwena people moved into the Magaliesberg and the Kwena chief at the time, Modimosana, divided his chiefdom among his four sons, who called their groups Kwena Magopa, Kwena Maake, Kwena Matlahaku and Kwena Mmatau. The Kwena Mmatau,  were particularly successful and became the dominant group. By 1800 they had constructed stone walled villages all along the southern slopes straddling the mountain passes that early ivory traders used on their way to the Cape. These traders and other travelers called the mountains Cashan after Kgwashwane, the powerful chief of the Kwena Mmatau and it remained that name until about 1840 1822 The Zulu invasion Around 1822, Shaka, leader of the Zulu nation, sent his favourite captain, Mzilikazi to subdue the Sotho tribes in the area. After conquering the Sotho tribes, Mzilikazi decided to break away from Shaka and the Zulu tribe and create his own clan (AmaKhumalo, or elephant clan). In 1824 the AmaKhumalo, fearing an attack from Shaka, fled north of the Vaal River and settled in the Magaliesberg regions. Mzilikazi’s impis left behind them a trail of destruction while consolidating the Matabele nation. Neighbouring tribes were living in trees in fear of their lives. Boer trekkers. After a number of Boer trek parties had been slaughtered by Mzilikazi’s impis, the Boers, led by Hendrik Potgieter and Gert (Gerrit) Maritz,  drove them north across the Limpopo River where Mzilikazi later established his kingdom of Bulawayo in Zimbabwe. The Boers settled in the valleys of the Magaliesberg and turned it into some of the most productive farmland in South Africa. Second Boer War (South African War) In October 1899, war broke out between the two ‘white tribes, the British and the Boer republics of Transvaal and Orange Free State. Within a year many lives were lost in the fighting in the Magaliesberg valleys, and in many of the deep gorges and high ridges along the mountain side. The Boers who were very familiar with the mountains, used secret pathways to cross the mountains and launch guerrilla attacks on the British soldiers. Occupation of the Magaliesberg was of great importance to the Boer and English forces, especially routes between Pretoria and Rustenburg that crossed the Magaliesberg mountains through, Silkaatsnek and Kommandonek. Great battles were fought and lives were lost at Buffelspoort, Nooitgedacht, Kommando Nek and Olifantsnek. The mountains were a severe testing of military skills and the Magaliesberg war was dominated by Boer leaders like De la Rey, De Wet, Beyers, Smuts and Kemp, who were experts in guerrilla leadership. All over the area remnants of these clashes can be seen. Many forts and blockhouses were built at strategic points in the mountains and some can still be seen today, the most prominent being the fort overlooking Kommando Nek and the Hartebeespoort Dam Although many of the farms lay in ruins after the second Anglo-Boer war, the natural beauty of the Magaliesberg remained unscarred and breathtaking as it is today.

The Magaliesberg Mountain Range  The Magaliesberg Mountain Range (historically also known as Macalisberg or the Cashan  Mountains) is a mountain range extending from Pretoria in the north of the Gauteng Province  to a point south of Pilanesberg, in the North West Province. The highest point of the  Magaliesberg is reached at Nooitgedacht (1,852  metres). The mountain range forms a natural barrier between  the lower lying Bushveld to the north and the cooler  Highveld to the south.  The Magaliesberg is about 100 times older than  Everest and was formed more than two billion years  ago when seismic forces cracked the bed of  what was then an inland sea and tilted it  skyward. Molten magma pumped into  fissures and burned deep kloofs in the rock.  Over millions of years the jagged peaks of  the tilted seabed were scoured by a  continental ice sheet, then buried in swamp,  smothered under desert sands and finally capped with volcanic lava.  Sixty million years ago the covering began to weather away and the mountains re-  emerged to become the cliffs, gentle slopes, secretive kloofs and the tumbling  streams of today.