Machadodorp

Machadodorp
Country	South Africa
Province	Mpumalanga
Time zone	SAST (UTC+2)
Postal code	1170

Machadodorp is a small town situated near the edge of the escarpment in the Mpumalanga province, South Africa. The Elands River runs through the town. There is a natural radioactive spring here that is reputed to have powerful healing qualities.

History

The town grew around a station originally named Geluk, after the sheep farm it was built on, but in 1894 the name was changed to honour Major Joachim Machado, an engineer who had surveyed the land for the proposed Pretoria-Delagoa Bay railway line.

The settlement became a capital for a few months from 5 June 1900, but was only declared a municipal town in 1904. This quirk in history happened during the Second Boer War when the Transvaal Volksraad made the town their temporary seat, using railway carriages as their offices and mint after they had to evacuate Pretoria in the face of a British invasion.

A quick-thinking station master rescued a consignment of dying trout by dumping the fish in the Elands River, which formed the start of the town's subsequent role in Mpumalanga's trout tourism industry. With the demise of passenger trains in South Africa, the once-postcard-pretty station closed in 2001 and it is now a derelict ruin.

In the 21st century, Machadodorp's residents either work for the industries feeding a chrome smelter, or the logging industries based on the pine plantations surrounding the town. A large contigent of contract workers employed at the Nkomati mine about an hour's drive out of town also reside in Machadodorp, contributing a large part of the town's economy.

The Komati Gorge, notable for its considerable biodiversity and bluff habitats, forms a backdrop to the town.

Name change

In early 2010 the town (along with Nelspruit and Waterval Boven) had its name officially changed. In Machadodorp's case the name has been officially changed to eNtokozweni, however it is unknown when (or maybe even if) the name change will catch on.

baKoni Ruins

The hills around Machadodorp are terraced with thousands of stone walls which form part of a vast complex described by tour guides as South Africa's "real" lost city . Conflicting theories exist as to the origins and ages of these ruins:

• Archaeologists have officially described the ruins as cattle kraals of the baKoni clan, which were written about in the 16th century. The ongoing 500 Year Initiative to rewrite South Africa's history has, however, delivered new insights that have led a group of leading archaeologists to appeal for funds to study the ruins which, they now say, may stretch as far as southern Ethiopia.
• Self-described renegade scientist and esoteric author Michael Tellinger sells the most radical opposing theory, stating that the "millions" of stone circles and walls constituted a massive power grid covering southern Africa, which an ancient civilisation would have used to resonate and conduct the sound frequency of earth into another form of energy that was presumably harnessed to mine gold.
• Anthropologist, Hindu-expert and linguist, Dr Cyril Hromnick, postulates that Dravidian traders, originally from the Gomti river in India, mined and inter-married with the Kung during the first millennium AD and that their descendants were responsible for building the terraces and stone circle dwellings that meander along Mpumalanga's escarpment as "astrological clocks," as well as for creating the Quena - or Hottentot - race.

History writes the winner's cheque

The orthodox archaeological view has Africa developing in isolation, the esoteric view rests heavily on the gods mentioned in the Sumerian tablets and the Indo-African view rests on what some criticised as tenuous linguistic claims. The proponents who get the most funding and most publicity will rewrite South Africa's history, using the ruins around Machadodorp to cast their arguments in stone.

External links

• Machadodorp Info
• Google Map