One of the most beautiful places in South Africa is the Blyde River Canyon. It is the third largest Canyon in the world, and second largest in Africa and second largest in Africa after the Fish River Canyon.
The Blyde River Canyon in Mpumalanga, South Africa, extends for 50kms along the lip of the great African escarpment. From the canyon rim guests can look eastwards over the layered rocks of the canyon walls and the Three Rondavels to the Lowveld plain, 1 600 metres below.
It was at this point that the ancient super continent, Gondwanaland, broke apart and Madagascar and Antarctica tore free from Africa some 200 million years ago. The broken edge of the continent was gradually tilted upwards by the weight of a vast shallow sea stretching west to beyond Pretoria. The sea left behind layer upon layer of dolomite and sandstone laid down as sediments over millions of years.
