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Mysterious Stone Ruins It is generally estimated by scholars that there are about 20,000 ancient stone ruins scattered throughout the mountains of southern Africa (figures 2 and 3). Modern historians have been speculating about the origins of these ruins, often calling them "cattle kraal of little historic importance". The truth of the matter is that closer scientific inspection paints a completely different and astonishing new picture about the ancient history of these stone ruins of southern Africa. The scientific reality is that we actually know very little about these spectacular ancient ruins, and it is a great tragedy that thousands have already been destroyed through sheer ignorance by foresters, farmers and developers. After my personal explorations on Figure 3: This II section of ‘ent city th hes f th foot and by air over the past two or igure 3: This is a small section of an ancient city that stretches for more than y P 20,000 square kilometres, linked by ancient roads, one of which can be clearly seen here from the air. This kind of detail is not at all visible to observers on the ground. more years, I can confidently estimate the number of ancient stone ruins to be closer to 100,000—a figure confirmed in Dullstroom covers around 20,000 square kilometres, January 2009 by retired archaeology professor Revil — which is an area larger than modern-day Johannesburg. Mason. Most of the original settlement structures are well buried Figure 3: This is a small section of an ancient city that stretches for more than 20,000 square kilometres, linked by ancient roads, one of which can be clearly seen here from the air. This kind of detail is not at all visible to observers on the ground. ruins to be closer to 100,000—a figure confirmed in Dullstroom covers around 20,000 square kilometres, January 2009 by retired archaeology professor Revil — which is an area larger than modern-day Johannesburg. Mason. Most of the original settlement structures are well buried beneath the soil and can only be seen from the air by a The Population Problem trained observer. This finding immediately poses a huge problem for The picture gets even more confusing when you archaeologists, anthropologists and historians because the accepted history of this part of the planet does not place, at any time in our past, anywhere nearly enough people here to have built this number of structures. It gets even more complex when you realise that these were not just isolated structures left behind by migrating hunter-gatherers. The true reality hits you when you take in the magnitude and expanse of these settlements and witness the staggering number of ancient terraces that surround these settlements which cover over 450,000 square kilometres and possibly much more in southern Africa. Detailed archaeological scrutiny of photographic evidence of these terraces shows some to be at least 5,000 years old (figure 4). Figure 4: Ancient terraces surround large complex settlements covering more than The complex that links Waterval 450,000 square kilometres in southern Africa. Some sections of these terraces Boven, Machadodorp, Carolina and have been estimated to be at least 5,000 years old, based on erosion patterns. structures. Figure 4: Ancient terraces surround large complex settlements covering more than 450,000 square kilometres in southern Africa. Some sections of these terraces have been estimated to be at least 5,000 years old, based on erosion patterns. JUNE - JULY 2010 NEXUS ¢ 63 www.nexusmagazine.com