Inzalu y'Langa

On our way to Kruger Park, we stopped in the little town of Kaapsche Hoop which is nestled up in the Drakensburg Mountains.  As we left the high veldt, our road wended its way down into a gorgeous green river valley, lined with trees, and up the sides of the dry and rocky mountains, we saw thousands of ancient aloe trees as tall as humans and looking like they were standing watch as we passed.  As we rose up the other side of the valley, our bus slowed as we struggled up the hill.  At the top, suddenly, out of the rocky and almost treeless mountaintop terrain, we saw this tiny Victorian village.  It’s now a charming little art town, with artist shops and a few market stands with food and crafts.  We didn’t get much time to explore, however, because we were there to meet our local guide, Michael Tellinger, who was taking us to an ancient prehistoric site outside of the town.  This site, which the local Zulus call Inzalu y'Langa, or ‘the Birthplace of the Sun,’ is a kind of ancient calendar, which gives rise to its other name, ‘Adam’s Calendar.’ 

We had to ride safari vehicles out to the site, because there was no road, only some basic tracks way out into a grassy savannah on the side of a long rocky cliff.  Over the side of the cliff, there is a surprisingly deep bowl-shaped depression, so deep and round it suggests perhaps it was formed by some long ago meteor hit.   Inside the giant bowl, which was filled with mist, were two large pyramid-shaped mounds.  Up on the top of the cliff, we first stopped at a plinth-like rock standing alone in a field of grass.  This rock was clearly human-worked for its shape, with a slightly rounded face and distinct corners.  It was part of the original site, and was moved about 25 years ago so it could be fixed with a plaque marking that the area was a bird sanctuary. There is an attempt being made to replace the stone at the original spot in the Calendar. 

 Our next stop was at an elderly twisted tree that had a small wood fence around it.  Just visible under the leaves of the tree is a pile of rocks that seem to have been stacked together in a sort of table-like formation.  They call this the alter.  Infrared ground-sensory tools suggest there is a small chamber about 3 meters beneath this alter.  It has not been excavated, but our guide believes it is a grave site.    The fence is not for people, but rather, to keep out the wild horses that have run free in the area since the early 1800s. 

Further up the cliff line, on a distinct promontory directly overlooking the pyramid mounds in the valley, we walked out to the Calendar.   It is a beautiful site, with a gorgeous view and a wide-open feeling.  There are about 50 stones in a large circle, some standing upright, a few on their sides.  At the center are two very large flat stones clearly positioned near and parallel with each other.  Our guide explained that edge to edge in one direction there is perfect shadow alignment with the summer solstice, and edge to edge on the other side, there is perfect shadow alignment with the winter equinox.  A spot between the rocks and aligned with a large rock on the outer edge of the circle, it points directly at the alter about 2 miles away (and perfectly visible at the top of the cliff on the next promontory over).  Perfectly aligned with the missing stone, across the center to another large plinth-like stone (called the Horus stone) is a direct east-west line.  Much like Stonehenge, and likely from roughly the same time period, there is no written record of this site, although the local Zulu people believe it is where the sun came down and mated with mother earth and started the human race.

Our guide was an interesting guy.  A raconteur, a dedicated amateur historian and archeologist, he is also the head of a small political party, the Ubuntu Party.  In fact, he is running for President of South Africa in the election next week.  We even saw his face on campaign posters!  He believes his party is going to get a few seats in the government.  He considers his party part of a world-wide movement, running on a campaign of economic control by the people, disbanding central banks, and stopping housing repossessions.  He came out to meet us followed by a campaign videographer who filmed our entire visit—I think we are hoping not to show up in any campaign media!

Our guide’s passion was obvious, and he and his Zulu partner have spent years researching the site.  However, mixed with information about the site, he also added his political beliefs, which blended with his special take on history (one that involved a number of interesting historical moments, conspiracies, and interpretations of a number of different ancient texts).  As you can imagine, this sparked some interesting questions and debate among the students.  After we got on the bus to leave, we had a great discussion about science, religion, history, truth, stories, politics, and ancient traditions.  We have some really sharp students with us, and they had a lot of great insight into how to think about everything we heard and saw today.