Riviersonderend Mountains

The Riviersonderend Mountains form part of the southwestern Cape's landscape of ridges and valleys. Across the wider region, Indigenous communities used resources through hunting, gathering, pastoral movement and exchange. Paths and seasonal knowledge connected different environments, while water and pasture influenced livelihoods. European settlement at the Cape in the seventeenth century gradually increased demands for land, livestock and labour. Colonial expansion affected Indigenous access to resources, while disease and conflict caused disruption. British rule brought further political change in the early nineteenth century.