The Hantam Karoo is an area located along the southern border of the Northern Cape Province of South Africa, bound by the Bokkeveld and Namaqualand in the west, the Renoster River in the east, Bushmanland in the north and the Roggeveld mountains in the south.
The Hantam area includes the towns of Calvinia, Sutherland, Fraserburg, Williston, Brandvlei, Loeriesfontein, Nieuwoudtville, Loxton, Van Wyksvlei and Carnarvon.
The Hantam-Karoo is sheep farming country, with about 1 500 farms, where 40% of the region’s total population reside. The fresh, unpolluted, and sparsely populated Hantam-Karoo is home to only about 47 000 people.
Ancient Hantam Karoo
According to archaologists, the Hantam Karoo used to be a great inland sea, some 250 million years ago, fringed by Cycads and roamed by mammal-like reptiles. Looking at the Hantam Karoo today, with its moon-like landscape of wide open plains, pyramid-shaped koppies, boulders and rugged table mountains, it is hard to imagine this scenario. But fossilised dinosaur foot prints, which tread a path across a prehistoric lakebed at Gansfontein, are quite spectacular proof of this claim about the Hantam Karoo.
The palaeosurface at Gansfontein comprises of several trackways of large, four-footed, five-toed mammal-like reptiles. The prints are approximately 190 million years old, and was discovered by N van Gass, in 1968.
War in the Hantam
The plains of the Hantam Karoo was also the scene of the first skirmishes of world's first "modern war", the Anglo Boer War of 1899-1902. Three Republican Commandos, reinforced by the rebels from the Cape Colony, conducted widespread operations throughout the Hantam Karoo. The Calvinia Magisterial district contributed a significant number of Republican fighters. Hantam Property
The open, limitless landscape of the Hantam Karoo, with it's clear blue skies, stunning sunsets, and rich variety of plant life has recently been attracting interest from visitors and investors from all over the world.
Owning a property in the Hantam Karoo must be a real privilege, but high-density residential developments just does not seem viable. Such developments would actually destroy the Hantam Karoo's main attractions - the vastness and solitude.
Hantam confusion
When researching the Hantam Karoo on the Internet, a Google search for "Hantam" brought me to numerous websites from eastern countries.
Apparently, "hantam" is a malay word, meaning "to hit". Malay slaves played a very important part in the history of old Cape Colony, and South African culture still shows many instances where the Malay influence had left its mark. This made me think that I had stumbled accross an interesting chunk of information about the hantam Karoo. But I was mistaken.
Hantam is apparently actually the Khoi-Khoi word for "the mountain where the red bulbs grow", according to more authoritive websites about the Hantam Karoo.
Hantam flowers
The Hantam Mountain is well known for its spring flowers and many of the fields in the Hantam Karoo are covered with large expanses of flowers in spring time, much like neigbouring Namaqualand.
The flower displays in the Hantam Karoo are more consistant, if less spectacular, than that of Namaqualand. Even in years when Namaqualand has had very little rain, the Hantam Karoo still bursts into bloom.
Hantam topography
The topography of the Hantam Karoo is typical mesa, but many rare plants of great importance grow in the Hantam Karoo, including Brunsvigia josephinae, Salvia granitica, Romulea Hantamensis, Gladiolus uysii and Hessa tenella.
Hantam Karoo Information
For more information about the Hantam Karoo, you can contact the Hantam Karoo tourism bureau at telephone number +27 (0)27 341 1080, fax number +27 (0)27 341 1852, or postal address Private Bag X5, Calvinia, 6852. If you are in the area, you could also visit the Hantam Tourism Information Centre in Calvinia.
