Limpopo

South Africa's northernmost province borders Zimbabwe, Botswana and Mozambique and often feels like the country's threshold to the rest of the continent. The Waterberg massif shelters malaria-free game reserves, the Soutpansberg mountains hold rare plant life and cultural complexity, and baobab country gives parts of the province a character found nowhere else in South Africa. The site of Mapungubwe — a precolonial kingdom that traded gold with China and India in the 11th century — is one of Africa's most significant archaeological landscapes.

Ancient land at the top of the country