Place · site

Mapungubwe Hill

Mapungubwe Hill is a flat-topped sandstone hill in the Limpopo valley of northern South Africa, near the confluence with the Shashe. Around 1220 the ruling elite moved onto its summit, apart from commoners below, and royal graves there contained gold objects including the famous golden rhinoceros. The site, abandoned around 1290, is part of a UNESCO World Heritage cultural landscape.

Mapungubwe Hill — Image: South African Tourism from South Africa · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Mentioned in 1 state history

Kingdom of Mapungubwe

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Cite this entry

APA: The Epoch Institute. (2026). Mapungubwe Hill. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/mapungubwe-hill
MLA: “Mapungubwe Hill.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/mapungubwe-hill. Accessed .
Chicago: The Epoch Institute. “Mapungubwe Hill.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/mapungubwe-hill.
Harvard: The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Mapungubwe Hill’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/mapungubwe-hill (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻