Maropeng is offering visitors the opportunity to celebrate Easter in style, by taking advantage of our dining and accommodation specials for April.

Join us for a family feast, at a buffet lunch hosted in the Tumulus Restaurant on Good Friday (adults R195, children R90). On Easter Sunday you can choose from a carvery at the Tumulus Restaurant (adults R110, children R75), a three-course lunch at the Maropeng Hotel (adults R200, children can choose from the kiddies’ menu), or a buffet lunch at the Sterkfontein Caves (adults R135, children R70).

You can also stay at the luxurious Maropeng Hotel at a reduced rate during the month of April. Stay at the Maropeng Hotel for only R780 per person per night. The package includes dinner, bed and breakfast as well as the Maropeng and Sterkfontein Caves tours.

Combine all three for an unforgettable Easter weekend, or choose an option that suits your family. Read about these offers and events on our calendar. Click here to make a booking online.

The theme for this month’s stargazing evening is “Our deep southern skies”. Join Maropeng’s resident astronomer, Vincent Nettmann, on a journey through the night sky on April 18, 2009.

Since ancient times, humankind has observed the skies with a fascination that has continued to grow as astronomers learn more about the endless space that surrounds Earth. Vincent will take guests billions of light years from Earth, beyond the solar system, to the realm of deep sky objects.

The exploration will include galaxies such as the Milky Way, nebulae (gaseous dust clouds) and star clusters, the best known in the Southern Hemisphere being the Jewel Box, an open cluster of stars in the Southern Cross.

This event will be held at the Sterkfontein Caves and includes welcome drinks and a buffet dinner (R195 for adults and R95 for children). Visitors are encouraged to make their way to the venue by 5pm.

Read the latest stargazing review and you’ll see that a quest for celestial knowledge is possible even in the rain!

The dates of the stargazing events for the rest of the year are as follows:

May 23 – You are here: A brief journey through the time and space of our universe
June 13 – Our winter skies
July 11 – Journey to the moon
August 22 – Explore the Milky Way
September 19 – Jupiter and Galileo
October 17 – Living amongst the stars
November 14 – An introduction to our summer skies

A range of large-aperture telescopes will be available to guests. Make sure you
dress warmly as these evenings can get very cold.

Click here to make a booking online.

Read about these events and more on our calendar.

Maropeng hosted an Open Day on March 25, 2009 to allow event and conference organisers a chance to explore Maropeng’s varied offerings.

The event was attended by over 120 people, who enjoyed lunch in the Tumulus Restaurant, and took part in workshops organised by 16 invited exhibitors, some of Maropeng’s preferred suppliers. These included drumming workshops, team-building exercises and even an exhibit about birds of prey put on by a local leisure company. Guests also enjoyed complimentary tours though the Maropeng Visitor Centre and exhibition hall.

Maropeng has loads to offer in terms of events, with state-of-the-art conference facilities for up to 500 delegates at Maropeng. Conference groups also have the option of using the conference venue at Sterkfontein Caves for groups of up to 120 delegates.

Read more about conferencing and events at Maropeng.

Maropeng takes part in ‘Visit with Visa’ promotion

Up to half a million international visitors are expected to flock to South Africa for the 2010 FIFA World Cup™. As winner of the Tourist Attraction category in South African Tourism’s 2008 Welcome Awards, Maropeng should be on everyone’s list of things to see between FIFA World Cup™ matches.

In the run up to the FIFA Confederations Cup and 2010, Maropeng, in association with Visa, is offering all Visa cardholders a discount.

Continue reading full Visa story.

Stargazing in the rain

The rain drew a gauzy curtain across the view of the hills. Beyond the glistening deck, there was a grey haze where the Magaliesberg range should have been, fading to blue in the distance.

Inside, in a comfy chair, I sipped hot chocolate, while Vincent Nettmann, Maropeng’s resident astronomer, set up the projector. Other guests mingled, enjoying the complimentary welcome drinks, under the watchful eye of Sylvia Makgetla, Maropeng’s sales and marketing assistant and our host for the evening.

The question on everyone’s mind was “How do we stargaze when it’s pouring down outside?”

Continue reading full stargazing story.

Discovering Maropeng’s architecture

The architecture of Maropeng, designed by GAPP Architects and MMA (Mphethi Morojele Architects), was based on the theme of discovery. When you approach the site, you see seven concrete fingers or 14m high concrete columns, signifying the centre, which moves in and out of sight along its approach.

The concrete fingers have words on them that hint at the major themes of the exhibition, such as “Imagine”, “Explore”, “Contemplate”, and “Discover”.

Continue reading the architecture story .

Maropeng will be opening a new exhibition on April 16, 2009. On display in the Original Fossil Exhibition at the Maropeng Visitor Centre will be a variety of fossillised insects from Southern Africa.

The fossils include early cockroaches found in the Karoo, well-preserved insects found at the Orapa diamond mine in Botswana, and even fly larvae found alongside hominid fossils in the Cradle of Humankind.

The Orapa insects are especially exquisite and include details like colour patterns, fossilised hairs, mouth parts and even the facets of a compound eye.

The exhibition will run until the end of July. Entrance to the Original Fossil Exhibition is included in the ticket price for the Visitor Centre. For detailed admission costs, click here.

Join us for sundowners at the Maropeng Hotel every Friday evening. Enjoy our two-for-one offer from 17h30 to 18h30 – buy any drink and get a second one free. Snacks will be provided.

Sit on the deck sipping delicious cocktails while enjoying beautiful views of the Magaliesberg. From strawberry daiquiris to mojitos, you’re sure to find something to quench your thirst on our cocktail menu.

Continuing our series of staff profiles published on the site, we have published a profile on one of our tourist guides, Refilwe Monageng .

Below is an extract from the article:

For Refilwe Monageng, a tourist guide at Maropeng, success means finally reaching a comfort zone after having worked hard to get there. She may be well on her way, but she doesn’t believe that she’s achieved it yet. “I’m still beginning,” she says.

Refilwe joined Maropeng in 2006 as a chef. After matriculating in 2004, she completed a hospitality course at Roodepoort College before working briefly at the Forum Homini hotel. She had been working in the kitchens at Maropeng for eight months when she heard that a tourist guide post was being advertised.

Read the full profile.

Maropeng's mission to improve the road signage to the Maropeng Visitor Centre continues. To date we have collected almost 900 signatures on our online petition.

You can read about the need for better signage on our site.

Some of the signatories have left comments about their frustrations over the lack of signage. Here are some of the comments already submitted:

“I came to SA in 1980 and found road signage inadequate and misleading. Now, nearly 30 years later the situation is as bad as it ever was. If you are a visitor (whether SA born or not) to any part of SA, you can almost guarantee you WILL get lost due to bad signage.” - Colleen Yeates

“Clear and accurate signage is essential for visitors to Maropeng. There is plenty of signage on the route for Sun City, why not Maropeng?” - CR Stockton

“In 2007 I’ve visited Maropeng, but it took us a very long time to get there! Because there were no signs, we drove around for more than 2 hours before we finally arrived. We asked people by the road, but many didn’t know where we had to go. Because we had to go to the airport later that day, we had very little time to visit the caves. I hope you will get enough sigs for the petition. I would love to come back some day, not having to search half a day for Maropeng!” - Christel van der Pijl, The Netherlands

Please help us by signing our petition.