Case file · Sacred site
Thaba Bosiu, the mountain that grows at night
Moshoeshoe led his people onto the plateau of Thaba Bosiu in July 1824; Basotho tradition says the mountain grew larger at night so no enemy could take it.
1824 CE · -29.35, 27.67 · status: legend
The account
The name is loosely translated 'mountain at night', because the people arrived in darkness. The stronghold resisted Zulu, Ndebele, Boer and British attacks, and Moshoeshoe is buried on its summit, a place of national pilgrimage in Lesotho.
The sceptical view
Historians read the legend as a story Moshoeshoe himself encouraged to discourage attackers.