Cradle of Humankind SA - Part 2

The fossil Hominid sites of Southern Africa comprises of the Cradle of Humankind, Taung and Makapan sites. The Cradle of Humankind is situated on 47,000 hectares of privately owned land and consists of 13 Palacontological sites.
The tour bigins with a boat ride which starts at the present and continues on a trip back through time, retracing the various stages of the creation of our earth. Snow-making and ice-producing machines give voyagers an indication of what the most recent ice age may have been like.

The beginning, when the earth was a fiery ball of molten rock.......

The journey goes back further into time, when the world was submerged in water,

and beyond that to the formation of the earth’s crust

and the shifting of the tectonic plates.

The ride ends dramatically in a simulated ‘black hole’. Scientists theorise that our world came into existence as a result of the collapse of the first star, creating a ‘black hole’ with a powerful gravitational pull. The force of the explosion created momentum amongst some of the dust, rocks and gas produced in the ‘Big Bang’ 14-million years ago. These particles were drawn into the centre of the ‘black hole’, gradually amassing into matter which eventually created the earth.

The boat ride ends in front of an audio-visual presentation of the formation of the earth, providing further understanding of the sensory experience of the boat.