Taung

Province

Taung is a city in the North West Province of South Africa. It is located halfway between Kimberley and Vryburg. 2011 18,289 inhabitants lived here. Taung means to Setswana " Place of the Lion " and was named after Tau chief of the tribe of BaTaung or Legoya.

History

Internationally became the place in November 1924 after workers at the Buxton quarry had made a bone Fund, which was described by Raymond Dart few weeks later in the British journal Nature as the fossil skull of a prehistoric man. This first discovery of Australopithecus africanus was later referred to as the " Taung Child ". The fossil is preserved today in the Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg. In the quarry there is a small memorial.

2005, the locality in the former Buxton quarry and some lying in the nearby archaeological sites have been included in the UNESCO list of world cultural heritage. The entry includes not only the Taung known as the cradle of mankind sites in Gauteng and the Makapansgat near Mokopane.

Additional points of interest

Other tourist attractions include the climbing and picnic area Blue Pools at the quarry site, now a hotel complex owned, 150 -acre Boipelo Reserve, the stone carvings of the San of Dinkwaneng near the village of Manthe and - east of Taung - the Mmabana Cultural Centre with its range of local arts and crafts.