Carnarvon and surrounds charm visitors with magnetic hospitality, good traditional food, a history steeped in land conflict and mission work (mostly Rhenish missionary history). The former, combined with unique architecture, hundreds of windmills and vistas of flat-topped hills, gave Carnarvon and district a unique charm that lures visitors to experience all of this in the peace and quiet of this sparsely populated land.  This is according to the website South-Africa-Info.

Communities of Xhosa moved up to the Orange River as early as 1795. One group subsequently settled at Schietfontein, which was served by a Rhenish mission, and a village named Harmsfontein was established in 1860.

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In 1874, it changed its name to honour the British Colonial Secretary, Lord Carnarvon. The district is well-known for its corbelled houses, built between 1811 and 1815. Carnarvon is set among flat-topped hills and is one of the region’s busiest farming centres.

The San-Bushmen that roamed the area hundreds of years ago used the typical Karoo hills for ceremonial events such as initiation rites. The San were hunter-gatherers and their lifestyle and culture could not survive in an era when migrating livestock farmers moved into the region.

The game that they depended on for their livelihood became scarce as the large herds of domestic animals competed with the game for grazing. At the same time, hunters with firearms killed off large numbers of game. The result was that the San started killing domestic animals for food with resulting reprisal raids carried out by the livestock farmers. The San clans that did not move away, started working for the livestock farmers and their culture was lost forever. The only evidence that remains today of their presence is the thousands of rock engravings on the black boulders of the Karoo. Read more on this town here.  Learn more about the Northern Cape through the video below.