Eastern Cape - Geography

Geography

See also List of cities and towns in the Eastern Cape

The Eastern Cape gets progressively wetter from west to east. The west is mostly semi-arid Karoo, except in the far south, which is temperate rainforest in the Tsitsikamma region. The coast is generally rugged with interspersed beaches. Most of the province is hilly to very mountainous between Graaff-Reinet and Rhodes including the Sneeuberge (English: Snow Mountains), Stormberge, Winterberge and Drakensberg (English: Dragon Mountains). The highest point in the province is Ben Macdhui at 3001m. The east from East London and Queenstown towards the KwaZulu-Natal border – a region known previously as Transkei – is lush grassland on rolling hills, punctuated by deep gorges with intermittent forest.

Eastern Cape has a shoreline in the south on the South Indian Ocean. In the northeast, it borders the following districts of Lesotho:

  • Mohale's Hoek – west of Quthing
  • Quthing – between Mohale and Qacha's Nek
  • Qacha's Nek – east of Quthing

Domestically, it borders the following provinces:

  • Western Cape – west
  • Northern Cape – northwest
  • Free State – north
  • KwaZulu-Natal – far northeast

Read more about this topic:  Eastern Cape

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