Case file · Sacred site
The golden rhino of Mapungubwe
In 1933 treasure seekers climbed the sacred hill of Mapungubwe, which local people avoided, and found royal graves with gold foil objects including a small rhinoceros.
1933 CE · -22.19, 29.24 · status: official
The account
The hill was the centre of a kingdom at the Shashe–Limpopo confluence around 1220–1290, older than Great Zimbabwe. The University of Pretoria took over the finds, but for decades apartheid-era histories gave them little attention. The site became a World Heritage Site in 2003.