The area around the Magaliesberg range has seen extremely lengthy occupation by humans dating back at least 2 million years to the earliest
hominin species (such as
Mrs Ples) in and around the
Sterkfontein Caves, which lie at the
Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site, close to the town of
Magaliesburg. The earliest known name for the Magaliesberg mountains is
Dithaba Diloka. This is a local
seTswana name in reference to the abundance of
Heteropogon contortus which grows in the area. However it seems this name would have only been used by neighbouring
Sotho-Tswana_peoples coming to and from the Magaliesberg mountains. Local resident
Tswana tribes referred to it simply as
Dithaba "The mountains". The first
European explorers who came to the area recorded the mountains being called the
"Cashan" or
"Kashan" mountains. This was a corruption of the name of a powerful chief of the
BaKwena ba Mmatau whose name was
Kgwasane wa Sekano (Kgwasane, son of Sekano). In the mid-1800s the mountain range became known as
Magaliesberg ''(lit. Mogale's mountain)
after Kgosi Mogale. Mogale means "sharp"
or "brave"
person, but is also the common word for a warrior or Tswana soldier, in Sotho bogale means "sharp"
and mogale is "brave"''. Similarly, the mountain range to the north, near Sun City, Pilanesberg, was named after the local Bakgatla chiefs, who were called
Pilane. In 1822,
Shaka, the leader of the
Zulu Kingdom, sent his most trusted commander,
Mzilikazi, to conquer the
Sotho tribes of the region. After accomplishing this task, Mzilikazi decided to break away from Shaka and found his own nation, the
Matabele. As he feared an attack from Shaka if he returned home, he settled in the Magaliesberg region. On 17 January 1837, after some
Voortrekkers had been attacked and killed by Mzilikazi's
impis, they counter-attacked and, under the leadership of
Hendrik Potgieter and
Gerrit Maritz, and with the help of local Sotho-
Tswana chiefdoms, drove the Matabeles north across the
Limpopo River. Because the re-conquest of the region was a cooperative venture of the
Boers and the Sotho-Tswana against the Matabele, the Boers and Sotho-Tswana had friendly relations at the beginning of
white settlement. These friendly relations are reflected in the name of the main Boer town,
Rustenburg (
lit. resting town), because it seemed to them that they would not have to engage in any more fighting against African communities. The Boers initially settled south of the Magaliesberg in the Highveld, leaving the Bushveld north of the Magaliesberg mostly to their Sotho-Tswana friends and allies; according to Sarah Heckford's memoir,
A Lady Trader in the Transvaal, the Boers would move into the Bushveld to visit their Sotho-Tswana neighbors during the winter. According to oral testimony by Tswana headmen recorded around the turn of the 20th century, many individual Boers formed close friendships with prominent individual Tswana headmen and chiefs, especially for the purpose of forming hunting parties to gather ivory and other products from further north. Subsequently the Boers began settling in the valleys of the Magaliesberg Range and in the Bushveld north of the Magaliesberg, and turned the region into some of the most productive farmland in South Africa, while displacing their former allies, confining them to locations and reserves. The area saw some heavy fighting during the Second
Anglo-Boer War. The Boers, being extremely familiar with the mountains, used secret pathways across the mountains to launch
guerrilla attacks on the
British soldiers. In response, the British forces built
blockhouses on top of the mountains in order to restrict the movement of the Boer forces; ruins of these structures are still to be seen on the mountain. Control of the Magaliesberg Mountain Range was of great importance to both the Boer and the British forces, especially the two routes between Pretoria and Rustenburg, which crossed it at Silkaatsnek and Kommandonek, respectively. As a result, many battles, such as the battles of Buffelspoort,
Nooitgedacht and Olifantsnek were fought in the area. After the war, farms in the area were reoccupied and farming was resumed,
tobacco and
citrus being particularly successful. In 1923 the
Hartbeespoort Dam, situated in one of the valleys of the range, was completed. It became a popular holiday and weekend destination for the inhabitants of
Johannesburg and Pretoria, and the villages of
Hartbeespoort and
Kosmos developed as a result. At present, the Magaliesberg area is still largely
agricultural, although tourism is a rapidly growing industry in the area.
Kgaswane Mountain Reserve is a nature reserve above Rustenburg covering of the Magaliesberg. Numerous smaller reserves, private and state, are to be found along the length of the range. ==Magaliesberg Biosphere Reserve==