Botswana fires

Devastating seasonal fires that raged from mid-September through October 2008 destroyed thousands of square kilometers of the Central Kalahari Game Preserve in Botswana. However, an initial report that the 2-million-year-old Gcwihaba Caves were destroyed in the fire has proved to be false.

Although the fire scorched the veldt around Gcwihaba, a proposed UNESCO World Heritage Site for its natural beauty and value to Paleolithic studies, the interiors of the caves were undamaged.

The Tsodilo Hills, currently Botswana’s only World Heritage Site, also were threatened by the fire, but the areas where more than 5,000 San rock paintings can be found were not damaged. The paintings are 800 to 2,000 years old.