‘Graaff-Reinet, a town in the Valley of Desolation, Karoo region,’

The town of Graaff-Reinet lies in the Valley of Desolation in the northeast Karoo region of the Eastern Cape province in South Africa. Founded in 1786, exactly a century before Johannesburg, it is the third-oldest colonially established settlement in South Africa. Notable South Africans born in Graaff-Reinet include anti-apartheid activists Robert Sobukwe, Matthew Goniwe and Beyers Naude, artist Helen Martins, 19th-century road builders Andrew Geddes Bain and Thomas Charles John Bain, palaeontologist James Kitching and business mogul Anton Rupert. (South African Tourism, CC BY-2.0)

The town of Graaff-Reinet lies in the Valley of Desolation in the northeast Karoo region of the Eastern Cape province in South Africa. Founded in 1786, exactly a century before Johannesburg, it is the third-oldest colonially established settlement in South Africa. Notable South Africans born in Graaff-Reinet include anti-apartheid activists Robert Sobukwe, Matthew Goniwe and Beyers Naude, artist Helen Martins, 19th-century road builders Andrew Geddes Bain and Thomas Charles John Bain, palaeontologist James Kitching and business mogul Anton Rupert. (South African Tourism, CC BY-2.0)