Piketberg
Encyclopedia
Piketberg is a town in the Western Cape
, South Africa
. The original spelling of the name was "Piquetberg".
The town is in the foothills of the Piketberg mountains, a range of low mountains formed from Table Mountain Sandstone
.
The area around the mountains is conducive to the farming of wheat, while the area on top of the mountains, being cooler and generally frost-free, is suited to the farming of fruit and Rooibos Tea.
Piketberg possesses a large white Dutch Reformed Church designed by the architect Carl Otto Hager in his trademark neo-Gothic style.
The area was inhabited by the Khoikhoi
and the San
before the arrival of settlers of European extraction and there is still well-preserved San rock art in the mountains. There was once a small military post in the town to protect the livestock of farmers against depredations by the Khoikhoi.
Western Cape
The Western Cape is a province in the south west of South Africa. The capital is Cape Town. Prior to 1994, the region that now forms the Western Cape was part of the much larger Cape Province...
, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
. The original spelling of the name was "Piquetberg".
The town is in the foothills of the Piketberg mountains, a range of low mountains formed from Table Mountain Sandstone
Table Mountain sandstone
The Table Mountain Sandstone is a group of rock formations within the Cape Supergroup sequence of rocks. Although still widely used in common parlance, the term TMS is no longer formally recognized; the correct name is the "Table Mountain Group" . The sequence is dominated by quartzites of very...
.
The area around the mountains is conducive to the farming of wheat, while the area on top of the mountains, being cooler and generally frost-free, is suited to the farming of fruit and Rooibos Tea.
Piketberg possesses a large white Dutch Reformed Church designed by the architect Carl Otto Hager in his trademark neo-Gothic style.
The area was inhabited by the Khoikhoi
Khoikhoi
The Khoikhoi or Khoi, in standardised Khoekhoe/Nama orthography spelled Khoekhoe, are a historical division of the Khoisan ethnic group, the native people of southwestern Africa, closely related to the Bushmen . They had lived in southern Africa since the 5th century AD...
and the San
Bushmen
The indigenous people of Southern Africa, whose territory spans most areas of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland, Botswana, Namibia, and Angola, are variously referred to as Bushmen, San, Sho, Barwa, Kung, or Khwe...
before the arrival of settlers of European extraction and there is still well-preserved San rock art in the mountains. There was once a small military post in the town to protect the livestock of farmers against depredations by the Khoikhoi.