Border Cave

Border Cave is a natural rock shelter on the western slopes of the Lebombo Mountains, straddling the border between Eswatini and the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal. It ranks among the most significant prehistoric sites ever discovered: in 2001, electron spin resonance dating of ash layers established that anatomically modern humans inhabited the cave at least 200,000 years ago, placing it at the very origin point of Homo sapiens occupation. Earlier fossil finds dated to between 80,000 and 50,000 years ago had already made the site archaeologically remarkable for decades before that. Reaching the cave requires a short hike along the hillside, but the reward is standing inside a space where the deepest roots of human prehistory have been materially preserved.