The Ancient Barberton Makhonjwa Mountains

With heights ranging from 600 to 1800 meters (2,000 to 5,900 feet), the Barberton Makhonjwa Mountains in South Africa and Eswatini are not particularly tall. What distinguishes the belt of greenstone rock formations found here is their age.

Beneath the rolling, grassy uplands and forested valleys of the mountain range lie some of the oldest, best-preserved, and diverse sequences of volcanic and sedimentary rock layers found anywhere on the planet. They hold evidence of some of Earth’s earliest forms of life, including microfossils, stromatolites, and other biologically derived materials. Geological sampling indicates that some rock formations in these mountains are 3.2 to 3.6 billion years old.