Johannesburg: Human Origins day tour and Malapa Museum｜South Africa

PLEASE NOTE: This tour needs to be booked at least 4 days in advance in order to arrange the specialist guide.

Travel to the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site and see the Malapa site, Gladysvale Cave, and the Bonecatcher sinkhole. Learn about the hominin fossils found in the area, and see the preparation area where the fossils are removed from the rock.

See the Bonecatcher, a sinkhole in its early stages where animals, plants, and other matter will eventually fall and be turned into fossils. Travel down through treed valleys to the Gladysvale cave which have yielded a variety of hominin fossil discoveries.

This is still an active dig site but was originally mined for limestone. See the old lime kiln where the stone was burned to give powdered lime, used in the extraction of gold and the creation of cement. At Gladysvale, see hominin fossils in the rock lying around, a unique experience.

Enjoy the sights, sounds, and smells of the African landscape as you reflect on the millennia of history locked in the surrounding rocks, waiting to be revealed. See the Malapa site, and walk up onto the "beetle" viewing platform for an overhead view of the excavation site.

This multi-purpose structure is an award-winning design. Excavators are often on site during the visit. Return to the starting point past the Motsetse site.

We spend time in the Malapa Museum viewing more detailed information about the creation of the fossils, their discovery, the dig sites, and the Australopithecus sediba fossils.

The Sterkfontein caves and associated museum are an option. The underground cave tour is quite strenuous and lasts an hour. The museum on the surface is full of interesting information and there is a walk around the dig site where the famous Mrs Ples was found in 1947.

We visit the official visitor centre for the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage site, Maropeng.