Stadsaal Caves and San rock paintings in the Cederberg

​By Roxanne Reid
The Cederberg Wilderness Area just 220km north of Cape Town is a place to feel the fresh mountain air on your face, hear the call of birds and enjoy views of mountains and intriguing rock formations. Don’t miss the Stadsaal Caves and San rock paintings of elephants that were painted at least 1000 years ago. 

​Rocky overhangs and caves with rock art are scattered throughout the Cederberg mountains, but the elephant paintings near the Stadsaal Caves are some of the most famous and well preserved. Ask at Algeria camp for a permit and the code for the gate, then drive 45km up the Uitkyk Pass until you get to the Matjiesrivier Nature Reserve. 

San rock paintings at Matjiesrivier
Once you’re inside the reserve, the first turnoff you come to will lead you to the rock paintings. Bring a barrel-load of respect with you and remember that rock art is protected by the National Heritage Resources Act, which means fat fines for ruffians who damage them.

When we arrived, a family of six was already there. Once they left, there was just the sound of the wind and I could believe this was once a place of worship or ritualistic importance. What a joy to see paintings in such a magnificent natural setting and to know that you’re standing on the spot where the San stood ten centuries ago.

Take your time to appreciate these ancient paintings depicting three groups of people and a herd of elephants. Read the info boards and you’ll get a lot more out of your visit.

For instance, you’ll learn that the paintings were done by San (Bushmen) hunter-gatherers using paint they made from soft rock called ochre, which is coloured reddish or yellow by iron oxide. They ground the ochre to powder and mixed it with water, blood or plant juices.

For black paint, they used charcoal or manganese oxide, and white came from fine white clay, but neither lasts as well as the ochre red and orange. As a result, the humans in the painting look headless, because the black paint used for their heads has faded over the centuries. 

​The San made their brushes from animal hair, feathers and reeds. Elephants are not all that common in rock art and the experts say that the absence of bows and arrows here shows that this isn’t a hunt. Instead, it’s more likely to depict a shaman ritual like rain-making.

Stadsaal caves
The Cederberg mountains are a treasure-house of sedimentary rock, sandstone and shale rock formations that have been eroded by wind and water over millions of years. Some of the most spectacular are the Stadsaal Caves, not far from the elephant rock paintings in the Matjiesfontein Nature Reserve.

​The Afrikaans word ‘Stadsaal’, meaning city hall, seems a strange association with a natural phenomenon in the Cederberg. The name was officially given to the cave after the National Party’s head honchos held a planning meeting there just before coming to power in South Africa in 1948. 

​That it was used as a gathering place well before 1948 is obvious from some of the graffiti preserved in the cave, dating back to the 1880s. The area used to be a farm owned by the Wagener family and, together with their buddies the Strauss, Scheepers and Conradie families, they left their names on the cave walls.

Someone should have told them – and the first Nat Prime Minister DF Malan – that rocks that are thousands of years old are more important than people’s egos. Whatever you do, do NOT add your own mark to the ‘historical’ graffiti.

​Apart from the main cavern area, there are lots of other openings and extravagant sandstone formations, stumpy pillars and skinny ones that seem almost incapable of supporting the weight of rock above them. 

Let your imagination loose as you walk the short trail that goes around the rocks, starting and ending at the parking area. Depending on how long you stop to stare or take photos, to appreciate the strange shapes and orange and reddish hues of the rocks, the trail should take anything from half an hour.

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