Caves closed nearly 3 years ago due to flooding and reopened with a new experience
KRUGERSDORP: At South Africa's Sterkfontein caves, visitors marvelled at the weathered limestone rocks hanging from the ceiling of the caves, millions of years old.
Located 50 kilometres northwest of Johannesburg, the caves closed nearly three years ago due to flooding and reopened Tuesday with a new experience bringing tourists closer to the scientific action.
The complex is housed within the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site, a rich source of artefacts for palaeontologists since it was first discovered.
South Africa's most famous find, a skeleton dubbed "Little Foot", deriving its name from the size of the bones first discovered in the 1990s, it is the most complete specimen of an early human ancestor yet discovered, estimated to be between 1.5 and 3.7 million years old.
Little Foot is from a branch of the human family tree called Australopithecus, Latin for "southern ape" - considered the ancestors of modern humans, with a mixture of ape-like and human characteristics.
At their peak before the Covid-19 pandemic, the caves welcomed up to a 100,000 tourists a year. The closure had left a lingering feeling of sadness, said Witwatersrand archaeology professor Dominic Stratford, recalling busloads of schoolchildren and inquisitive visitors. "Everyone felt like we were missing something," he told AFP.
A temporary exhibit of the fossils has been set up at the museum, where visitors will also get a chance to see "Mrs Ples", the most complete skull of an Australopithecus africanus, found in South Africa in 1947.
Guiding helmet-clad visitors through the 2.5 kilometres of caves bathed in soft blue LED lights, Trevor Butelezi gestures toward a shadowy passage that leads to an underground lake.
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