Amphitheatre (Drakensberg)
Amphitheatre
Interesting facts
- French missionaries who explored the area in 1836 named the summit plateau Mont-aux-Sources for the many rivers that rise there.
- Rivers from the plateau reach two oceans: the Tugela flows east to the Indian Ocean, while the Elands and Caledon feed the Orange towards the Atlantic.
- The tallest single leap of the Tugela Falls drops about 411 metres, part of a five-tier cascade.
- The plateau above the wall is a sheet of basalt lying at an average of around 3,050 metres.
- For the film Zulu, a replica of the Rorke's Drift mission was built beside the Tugela River, about 160 km from the real battlefield.
- Zulu, starring Michael Caine and Stanley Baker, was directed by Cy Endfield, who filmed the exteriors here in 1964.
- The chain-ladder route to the top climbs two ladders of roughly 50 rungs each.
Why it is worth it
The Amphitheatre is the northern Drakensberg's great wall: a curved rampart of rock more than five kilometres long, rising in sheer cliffs about 1,200 metres high, with its rim above 3,000 metres. From the valleys of Royal Natal National Park it looks like a stage set built for giants, its rim running unbroken from end to end. Its cliff area is often compared with Yosemite's El Capitan and exceeds it several times over.
Over the edge of the Amphitheatre pours the Tugela Falls, which drops in five tiers from the plateau of Mont-aux-Sources, where the Tugela River is born. Its height was long given as 948 metres; a Czech survey in 2016 measured 983 metres, which would make its total drop greater than Angel Falls in Venezuela, though the ranking is still debated, since Angel Falls has the longer single uninterrupted plunge. The falls are at their fullest after heavy rain, when the white thread can be seen from the park road far below.
The wall can be experienced from two sides. From the Royal Natal side, a trail of about seven kilometres follows the Tugela Gorge through indigenous forest to the foot of the cliffs, ending with a scramble among boulders. From the top, hikers start at the Sentinel car park at around 2,500 metres and follow the path beneath the Sentinel to two sets of chain ladders that climb the last cliff band onto the escarpment — then walk across the grassy plateau to stand at the lip of the falls, looking straight down the face they saw from below. Its brooding silhouette served as a backdrop for the 1964 film Zulu.
Getting there
The nearest town is Phuthaditjhaba in the Free State, about 28 km away in a straight line; the road through it climbs to Witsieshoek Mountain Lodge and the Sentinel car park, starting point of the chain-ladder route. The Royal Natal National Park entrance on the KwaZulu-Natal side gives access to the Tugela Gorge walk. The nearest airport in a straight line is Moshoeshoe I International Airport (MSU) in Lesotho, about 154 km away, but the practical gateway is Johannesburg's main airport (JNB), roughly four hours' drive (about 340 km) via the N3 and Harrismith. The round trip to the top of the falls from the Sentinel car park is about 12 km and takes around six hours.
Plan your visit
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Nearby places
- Tugela Falls 2.6 km · waterfall
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
The Amphitheatre is one of the geographical features of the Northern Drakensberg, South Africa. The cliff face of the Amphitheatre is roughly three times the size of the total combined area of all the cliff faces in Yosemite's famous El Capitan, and more than 10 times the size of El Capitan's most famous face. It is part of the Royal Natal National Park.
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