Tswaing Crater Tour in Pretoria

View the imprint a meteorite made 220 000 years ago when it impacted the earth's surface 40km north of Pretoria. (Comfortable shoes a must. 30 min walk). The crater has international status as one of the youngest and best preserved, bowl-shaped impact craters in the world.

Tswaing Crater Tour

Forty kilometers north of Pretoria lies a ring of hills a kilometer in diameter and 100 meters high. These hills are the walls of an impact crater left by an asteroid which hit there some 200 000 years ago. The Tswaing crater is similar in size to the well-known Barringer meteor crater in Arizona. The crater walls at Tswaing were originally about twice as high as they are today.

The crater is called Tswaing in seTswana, the local language of the area, or Soutpan in Afrikaans. Both names mean Salt Pan and this derives from the lake of salty water that fills the centre.

There is a museum adjacent to the crater. A path leads from the museum to the crater, along the rim, and down to the central lake. The crater is covered with indigenous trees and bushes, and attracts a variety of bird life.

Our tour takes us north of Pretoria, crossing the granite terrane of the Johannesburg Dome, followed by the sediments of the Transvaal Supergroup, and the mafic phase of the Bushveld Complex, into the overlying Bushveld granophyre and granite. At the site the tour will comprise:

* Firstly at the Reception Area the National Cultural History Museum's impressive exhibits on all facets of the Tswaing Crater Museum. This provides an excellent depiction of evidence for the impact event, information on meteorites and other Southern African impact sites, and archaeological evidence of subsequent activities, plus information on the flora and fauna.
* We then walk or drive closer to the crater to the best view sites, have a short walk along the crater rim but not venture too far into the crater. This will bring the impact event to life when we have excellent views of the lake-filled crater and the considerable ejected granitic debris.
* During this walk we will also see the large diversity of broadleaf woodland and acacia vegetation (over 420 botanical species have been identified) and some of the more than 320 species of birds that have been identified, many seasonal migrants.
* The remains of the old salt and soda works and the experimental farm.

On our way to your drop-off point, and time permitting, we have a short optional stop at the Transvaal Museum of Natural History in central Pretoria to see the world-class Geoscience Museum.

Tour Duration

(6 Hours)
Depart: 8:00am - 9.00am
Return: 2:00pm - 2.30pm

Book this tour

Price includes ALL entrance fees. Prices are subject to change without notice. Please confirm via email or cellphone for a formal quotation. We provide transport to other locations as well, eg. Limpopo, Namibia, Botswana, Maputo and other destinations in SA. Call/Email for Quotations. ALL QUANTUMS ARE FITTED WITH LATEST NAVIGATION AND TRACKING TECHNOLOGY AS WELL AS STATE OF THE ART ENTERTAINMENT