The Tropic of Capricorn runs directly through the Capricorn District Municipality. In the Molemole area, visitors can stop at and touch the Tropic of Capricorn monument. This makes the geographical line tangible at a named point: it is not just a reference on a map, but something visitors can experience on site.
Finding your way around Molemole
The road connections also provide clear bearings. The N1 national road runs through Molemole Municipality and connects it to Zimbabwe in the north. The P94/1 provincial road, also known as the R521, also runs through the municipality and leads to Botswana in the west. For geographical orientation, the two routes can therefore be distinguished by their destinations: north via the N1, west via the P94/1 or R521.
Nature and rock art
Blouberg Nature Reserve covers 9,348 hectares and is home to a breeding colony of more than 1,000 breeding pairs. A special visitor experience is the guided Vulture Trail: visitors can book a tour that leads to a plateau above the breeding colony and offers the chance to see vultures in flight. Check the latest information about the trail before your trip.
The Makgabeng Mountain offers a different perspective on the landscape, with around 400 rocky sites featuring rock paintings. The approximate number gives a sense of the scale of this archaeological resource. Rock art here is not limited to a single site, but forms an extensive record of cultural traces.
Museums between photography and living history
The Hugh Exton Photographic Museum is housed in a 19th-century Dutch Reformed church. It holds a collection of 23,000 photographs documenting the culture and history of Polokwane and its people. The building and collection thus bring together two different perspectives: the history of a building and the photographic record of the city and its people.
At the Bakone Malapa Northern Sotho Museum, visitors can explore a traditional Sotho village as it is believed to have existed 250 years ago. As an open-air museum that visitors can walk through, it offers a different way to engage with history than a photographic collection. The name Polokwane Cultural History Museum is also useful for orientation: the museum is also known as the Irish House Museum.
Polokwane and more to discover
Polokwane offers a range of other, very different attractions. Polokwane Golf Course was established in 1863. Meropa Casino also includes a bird and snake sanctuary called Wild Thingz. Polokwane is also a stopover on the way to Kruger National Park, making it a useful regional reference point when planning a trip.
A wider destination perspective: Northern Province
Within the broader Northern Province destination, the cultural landscape of Mapungubwe offers another historical perspective. It tells the story of the rise and fall of the first indigenous kingdom in southern Africa between 900 and 1300 AD. Mapungubwe Hill served as a royal residence and burial site for members of this kingdom's elite. This adds a much earlier historical period to the story conveyed by the village at the Bakone Malapa Northern Sotho Museum.
Discover more destinations: Tolwe, Amatava, Groothoek, Polokwane Local Municipality, Far North, Bosveld, Southern, Waterberg
Back to the broader travel overview: Limpopo.
