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Gcwihaba

Les noms des biens figurent dans la langue dans laquelle les Etats parties les ont soumis.

Botswana (Afrique)

Date de soumission : 21/07/1999
Critères: (viii)(ix)
Catégorie : Naturel
Soumission préparée par :
National museum, Monuments and Art Gallery, Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs
Coordonnées
Gumare Sub-District in Ngamiland, Northwest District, Republic of Botswana. 21°20' E
Ref.: 1339

Description

In the northwest corner of Botswana several related groups of dolomite hills present a striking contrast to the surrounding sandveld. The Aha hills strabble the Botswana / Namibia border just north of the village Xai-Xai. Some 40km east-southeast the Gewihaba Valley with its fossil river features a cluster of 6 lowlying dolomite hills. Further 19km southwest of the Gewihaba Caves lies Koanaka Hills, with three hills. The fascinating aspect is that all these hills have caves. The total area of the Gewihaba Region to be covered is 380 sq.km.



The Gewihaba Caves have been part of the Kaluhari landscape for at Ieast the entire Pleistocene era, some 2 million years ago. The cave contains sediments useful for the regional paleoclimatic reconstruction. This was found out during the first scientific research undertaken by Cooke and Ballieul (1974). This cave system has two large (>5m) wide cavernous entrances, which have allowed access of a large number of bats and windblown sand deep into the cave. This has effectively buried muh of the cave with sediment of up to at least 7m (Cooke, 1975). The cave is relatively easy to explore.



Adjacent to this cave is a recently discovered cave named ! Wa Doum. This has only been researched on a few occasions. The caves most important feature is that it has had a very limited exchange with surrounding atmosphere as it was more or less totally sealed off from the outside world until researchers entered it for the first time in October 1992. These caves have a very rich variety of secondary cave formations such as stalactites and stalagmites, but also many more unusual formations such as helictites, soda straws and cave pearls, totally untouched by man. The cave has been "resealed" after each visit by researchers to safeguard the interior air composition.



The caves occurring in the three hills of Koanaka, the Bone Cave and the Blue Cave, contains a type of breccia has very high densities of fossils. This is the richest cave fossil deposit in Botswana and possibly the richest in Southern Africa.

Due to the isolated nature of these dolomite hills with its caves, a special flora and fauna has developed. Some Aloe spp and the Namaqua Fig, Ficus cordata, are only found in these hills. Of particular interest is the latter as it appears to be dependent on its roots access to the more humid cave space below. These roots create beautiful "curtains" inside the caves. This tree in its turn is the home of the Ruepel's Parrot (Poicephalus ruepelli) which is also restricted to this area of Botswana. The area has quite a variety of bird species and also big mammals such as elephant, but perhaps scientifically more important biodiversity-wise is the invertebrate fauna surrounding as well as inside the caves. This still needs to be further researched.



All the caves have been listed as national monuments under the Monuments and Relics Act, which is managed by the National Museum, Monuments and Art Gallery of the Republic of Botswana.