List of World Heritage Sites in South Africa

Name; named after the World Heritage Committee's official designation[3]

Location; at city, regional, or provincial level and geocoordinates

UNESCO data; the site's reference number; the year the site was inscribed on the World Heritage List; the criteria it was listed under. Criteria i through vi are cultural, while vii through x are natural (the column sorts by year added to the list)[4]

Period; time period of significance

Description; brief information about the site, including reasons for qualifying as an endangered site, if applicable

Name	Image	Location	Period	UNESCO data	Description	Ref(s)
Fossil Hominid Sites of South Africa		Sterkfontein	Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs	915; 1999, 2005 (extended); iii, vi	The area contains various fossil sites containing traces of human occupation and evolution dating back some 3.3 million years.	[5][6]
Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape		Limpopo Province	11th to 14th centuries	1099; 2003; ii, iii, iv, v	This open savanna lies at the confluence of the Limpopo and Shashe rivers. It was the heart of the Mapungubwe Kingdom until the 14th century, when the area was abandoned, leaving untouched remains of palaces and settlements.	[7]
Richtersveld Cultural and Botanical Landscape		Northern Cape	19th century to present	1265; 2007; iv, v	This mountainous desert is communally owned and managed. It sustains the semi-nomadic pastoral livelihood of the Namaqua people, including seasonal migrations that have persisted for two millennia.	[8]
Robben Island		Table Bay	17th to 20th centuries	916; 1999; iii, iv	Between the 17th and 20th centuries, the island was used as a prison, including for political prisoners, a hospital for socially unacceptable groups (leper colony), and a military base.	[9]
Cape Floral Region Protected Areas		Western Cape, Eastern Cape	N/A	1007; 2004; ix, x	The site consists of eight protected areas that are among the richest in plant life worldwide, containing nearly 20% of Africa's total flora. Its scientific value is demonstrated by the presence of fire and radiation adaptivity in plants and seed dispersal by insects.	[10]
iSimangaliso Wetland Park		KwaZulu-Natal	N/A	914; 1999; vii, ix, x	The park features a variety of landforms, including coral reefs, long sandy beaches, coastal dunes, lake systems, swamps, and reed and papyrus wetland, caused by fluvial, marine and aeolian processes. This has resulted in an exceptional species diversity.	[11]
Vredefort Dome		Vredefort	Paleoproterozoic era	1162; 2005; viii	The crater, with a diameter of 190 km (120 mi), is the largest, oldest and most deeply eroded astrobleme found on Earth, dating back more than 2 billion years.	[12]
uKhahlamba / Drakensberg Park		KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho	2000 B.C.	985; 2000; i, iii, vii, x	The park features soaring basaltic buttresses, incisive dramatic cutbacks, golden sandstone ramparts, rolling high-altitude grasslands, pristine steep-sided river valleys and rocky gorges.	[13]
ǂKhomani Cultural Landscape				1545, 2017, 959,100 ha, (v)(vi)	The ǂKhomani Cultural Landscape is located at the border with Botswana and Namibia in the northern part of the country, coinciding with the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park (KGNP). The large expanse of sand contains evidence of human occupation from the Stone Age to the present and is associated with the culture of the formerly nomadic ǂKhomani San people and the strategies that allowed them to adapt to harsh desert conditions. They developed a specific ethnobotanical knowledge, cultural practices and a worldview related to the geographical features of their environment. The ǂKhomani Cultural Landscape bears testimony to the way of life that prevailed in the region and shaped the site over thousands of years.
Barberton Makhonjwa Mountains		Mpumalanga	Archean aera	1575; 2018; viii	The Barberton Makhonjwa Mountains represents the best-preserved succession of volcanic and sedimentary rock dating back 3.6 to 3.25 billion years, when the first continents were starting to form on the primitive Earth.	[14]

In addition to sites inscribed on the World Heritage List, member states can maintain a list of tentative sites that they may consider for nomination. Nominations for the World Heritage List are only accepted if the site was previously listed on the tentative list.[15] As of 2018, South Africa lists five properties on its tentative list:[16]

1. Succulent Karoo Protected Areas
2. Liberation Heritage Route
3. Early Farmsteads of the Cape Winelands
4. The Emergence of Modern Humans: The Pleistocene occupation sites of South Africa
5. Human Rights, Liberation Struggle and Reconciliation: Nelson Mandela Legacy Sites

• List of World Heritage Sites in Africa
• List of heritage sites in South Africa

• unesco.org
• South African Heritage Resources Agency