The Cradle of Humankind - Gautengs premier tourist attractio

The Cradle of Humankind is a World Heritage Site first named by Unesco in 1999, about 50 kilometres northwest of Johannesburg, South Africa.

The Cradle of Humankind currently occupies 183 square miles (474 km²); it contains a complex of limestone caves, including the Sterkfontein Caves, where the 2.3-million year-old fossil Australopithecus africanus (nicknamed "Mrs Ples") was found in 1947 by Dr Robert Broom and John Robinson. The find helped corroborate the 1924 discovery of the juvenile Australopithecus africanus skull, "Taung Child", by Raymond Dart, at Taung in the North West Province of South Africa. Excavations continue at the site to this day. In 1997, the near-complete Australopithecus skeleton of "Little Foot", dating to at least 3.3 million years ago, was discovered by University of Witwatersrand palaeoanthropologist Professor Ronald Clarke. The controlled use of fire at this site has been dated to over 1 million years ago at Swartkrans.

The hominid remains at the Cradle of Humankind were encased in a mixture of limestone and other sediments called breccia and fossilised over time. Hominids probably lived all over Africa, but their remains are only found at sites where conditions allowed for the formation and preservation of fossils.

The new Sterkfontein Cave visitors centre - the first phase of a multimillion rand development at the Cradle of Humankind outside Johannesburg - is now complete, offering a richer experience at one of the worlds most important archaeological sites.

You can also visit the new Sterkfontein Cave restaurant (open for lunch and dinner), souvenir shop, auditorium, and hominid exhibition hall with interactive exhibits - this will open in August.

You can also view some of the ongoing excavations from a wooden walkway, and take a look-in at the laboratory where scientists examine their fossil finds.

Sterkfontein Cave is the most famous of 13 excavated fossil sites in the broader 47 000-hectare Cradle of Humankind site. Three million years of human activity have taken place in and around the Cradle, including mans earliest-known mastery of fire.

Forty percent of all human ancestor fossil finds have been made here, including several of the worlds most famous and important fossils - among them Mrs Ples (now believed to be Master Ples), dating back 2.5-million years, and Little Foot, an almost complete ape-man skeleton between 3 and 3.5-million years old (though a recent study puts it at just over 4-million years old).

A further 500 hominid fossils and over 9 000 stone tools have been excavated in the area, and excavations will probably continue for another 100 years.

"This is the longest palaentological dig in the world, and we plan to make Sterkfontein an iconic venue", says Rob King, chief executive of the Furneaux Stewart GAPP (FSG) consortium responsible for the R163-million development.

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