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Find the lost city of the Kalahari & some dead trees

30/4/2014

10 Comments

 
Kamqua picnic site, Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park
By Roxanne Reid
You’ve had a hard morning’s game viewing when you arrive at the Kamqua picnic site on the Auob River in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. You’re looking for a spot of shade where you can get out and stretch your legs. What you find is the lost city of the Kalahari & some dead trees. 

The camelthorn trees at Kamqua have been providing shade to picnickers in the park for decades. Then sometime in the last year or so, they withered and died; all that’s left are their skeletons.

I get that it’s a good idea to clear the vegetation under the trees, so snakes can’t hide there ready to nip visitors on the ankles. But I don’t know why a few of the park's staff couldn’t wield spades to skoffel off the offending growth. Instead, carelessly applied weed-killer has wiped out everything in sight, from the tiniest plant to large trees which – if left unpoisoned – could have lived for 200­ to 300 years.
Kamqua picnic site, Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park
The dead trees at the Kamqua picnic site
Kamqua picnic site, Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park
Here's what the picnic site used to look like in the 1990s, with welcome shade and white-browed sparrow weavers chattering in the camelthorns above you
It means you won’t want to linger at Kamqua. But don’t hightail it out of there before you take a look at the info board that tells the intriguing story of the lost city of the Kalahari.

The Lost City of the Kalahari
The legend about a vast city made from huge stones stacked on top of each other and then hidden away under the Kalahari sand has been knocking around for more than a century. Before you decide whether or not to believe it, you need to get to know the fellow who started the rumour.

He was one William Leonard Hunt, better known as The Great Farini – an explorer, inventor, writer, painter and spy, but best known for his tightrope performances at Niagara Falls in the 1860s. He was a fierce competitor and challenger of the more famous Blondin, and his exploits included crossing a high wire carrying a man on his back, or blindfolded, or with baskets on his feet, or doing somersaults along the way.

Definitely not an ordinary dude.
WL Hunt
William Leonard Hunt, aka the Great Farini
Tired of staring death in the face, he packed in his Niagra stunts in 1869 and carved out a career in Europe where he trained acrobats and invented the human cannonball. In 1885 he visited Africa in search of new excitement – and diamonds. In the book he wrote about the expedition he claimed he'd found a lost city in the Kalahari Desert. He was even invited to the Royal Geographic Society in London to talk about it.

So what exactly did he find?

He wrote of ‘an irregular pile of stones’ he thought had once been ‘a huge walled enclosure’ about a mile long. ‘In the middle was a kind of pavement of long, narrow, square blocks neatly fitted together, forming a Maltese cross, in the centre of which at one time must have stood an altar.’ 

The city was laid out in an arc and looked a bit like the Great Wall of China after an earthquake. Part of it was exposed and part had been covered by sand. Not one to be deterred by his lack of archaeological training, Farini reckoned the ruins were thousands of years old.
Lost city of the Kalahari, Kgalagadi Transfrontier National Park
As far as I can tell, Farini's visit to the Kalahari was in 1885, not 1895 as the info board states. His book about his journey, called 'Through the Kalahari Desert', was published in 1886
Since Farini’s big adventure, there have been about 30 expeditions to try to find the lost city, none of them successful. Then in 1964 Dr AJ Clement visited Rietfontein (to the southwest of Kamqua, on the Namibian border) where he saw an unusual rock formation known as Eggshell Hills. In places the rocks looked like a double wall built from large rocks. Clement thought that Farini may have confused the rocks with square building blocks.

A geologist who saw photos of the site suggested that the ‘ruins’ were simply weathered dolerite. Magma intrusions had forced their way in and formed cracks and splits as it cooled. This is what made it look as if the rock had been carefully cut and dressed, with pieces stacked up on top of each other.

Clement agreed that the rocks were all neatly squared and the lines were parallel and at right angles. But he felt sure that if this was what Farini had seen, he’d seen a natural formation, not a lost city. ‘There’s something rather sad about the destruction of a legend,’ he added.
Lost City of the Kalahari, Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park
The photo on the bottom right shows just how much the rocks near Rietfontein look like dressed stone
Of course, not everyone will be convinced. The swashbuckling appeal of searching for the lost city of the Kalahari is so great it’s doubtful we’ve seen the last expedition to find it.

So despite the skeletons of dead trees, the Kamqua picnic site still has something to offer – but only if you stop to take in this tale of a mysterious lost city.

​More about the Kgalagadi

Copyright © Roxanne Reid - No words or photographs on this site may be used without written permission from roxannereid.co.za
10 Comments
John Beaumont link
6/5/2019 09:44:54 pm

Dear Roxanne,
It is good that you have published your blog about the doubt of the existance of the Kalahari lost city as decribed in John Clement's book on the subject, but I must raise some queries about your article. Firstly, I was never aware that John Clement was a professor. When he set out on his Lost City expedition he was a dental surgeon with the title of Doctor and an amateur archeologist and unless you have it on authority that a professorship was conferred on him later in life I suggest that you check your facts, though I would like to think that you are right!
To say that he visited Rietfontien where he was shown the rock formation rather suggests that he was on a chance visit and understates the fact that he had researched and planned the expedition weeks in advance and was confident that he would find what he was looking for in the Rietfontein area which, as you quote, was a natural formation confirming his belief.
I was introduced to John Clement whilst on an extended holiday in S Africa. I was a professional cinematographer/photographer at the time and he asked me, as a favour, to join him on the expedition to shoot some film footage and take photographs, an opportunity I couldn't refuse (see pages148 & xiii in his book). I was not commissioned nor paid for my service and it was mutually agreed that, in view of this, that I would retain the copyright to the black & white photos, the originals of which I still have though you obviously wouldn't be aware of this.
You claim copyright on the article which contains five of my photographs. I believe that copyright on photographs lapses after 50 years ( I am looking for confirmation of this) and I am not taking issue with you over the use of them except to say that you should not take it for granted that an author is the owner of copyright of everything in his/her publication as you will now be aware of and may take it upon yourself to revise your article and give the photographer his due credit?
Yours, with no ill feeling,
John Beaumont, Hampshire, England
Footnote. I thoroughly enjoyed the expedition and still have the two little rubies that we found at Rietfontein. See page 149

Reply
Roxanne Reid link
7/5/2019 07:29:06 am

Thanks, John, for your detailed comments, which add to the knowledge about this. I'm just reporting on what the info panel in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park says. Also, my photos are of the photos on the info board in question. If the park has violated your copyright and used your photos without permission, I suggest you take it up with them. Because they're so old, I had assumed they were no longer copyright or that the park had permission to use them.

Reply
Roxanne
16/6/2019 02:16:52 pm

John, Jacques Marais wants to talk to you about this, but I can no longer access your email address to pass on to him. If you're keen, you can email him on info@jacquesmarais.co.za.

Reply
John beaumont
7/5/2019 08:54:50 pm

Thanks Roxanne for your reply. My apologies for accusing you of breaching copyright. I see that other Bloggers have also used the Kgalagari Transfontier Park info board to support their articles though shallow some of them are and I doubt if they have actually set eyes on, let alone read, Dr. Clement's book. I have spent an afternoon hunting for Kgalagari info board on their website but to no avail, a pity because I would liked to have found out about the copyright issues, just out of curiosity. As I said, I still have the photos of the expedition, not just the lost city but the whole trip, some in colour, so if you would like to see some let me know. John

Reply
Susi Clement
18/2/2020 08:35:30 am

Good morning, I am the daughter of AJ Clement, living in Menorca....was curious regarding your time spent with my father......
This is just an email as a formal presentation!
Rgds
Susi ( Carole Anne)

Reply
Roxanne
19/2/2020 11:24:15 am

I hope Mr Beaumont sees this and replies to you, Susi.

john beaumont
26/4/2021 01:26:26 pm

Hello Susi, it is just by chance that i decided to look at Roxanne's website after a gap of 2 years! I don't have your email so I assume that this will go via Roxanne, which should speed things up.
I am 90 now but I remember John clement very well and the expedition to the "Lost City" which was really the only association I had with him, a lovely man, but I am happy to enlarge on that if you wish. I look forward to hearing from you? John

Roxanne
29/4/2021 02:28:41 pm

Hi John and Susi. Unfortunately, I can't see your email addresses on my phone app to put you in touch with one another. I'm away for a few weeks and will only be able to access those details later but will pass them on when I can. John, I did pass your details on to Jacques Marais way back when, so he must have decided not to get in touch after all.

Jacques Marais link
24/5/2019 08:47:51 am

Hi Roxanne, hope you don't mind, but I'd love to make contact with John Beaumont as per his message above - please forward me his email if you have this? Would be very keen to interview him re his contact with Hunt / Farini. Thanks :-)

Reply
Roxanne Reid link
24/5/2019 08:50:34 am

I'm not sure I can see the email address on my phone app and I'm not back at a desktop till mid June. I'll try, but please be patient if not.

Reply

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    I'm an independent travel writer and book editor with a passion for Africa - anything from African travel, people, safari and wildlife to adventure, heritage, road-tripping and slow travel.
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