Rehoboth
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Rehoboth
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Aloe |
Reho-Spa |
Thermal Pool |
Shaded Picnic |
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Rehoboth lays some 90km south of
Windhoek on the main B1 road, and in one's rush to get to
Windhoek
it is easily passed by without a thought. It's not a pretty town,
however, like many such small towns, it has got some hidden
attractions. The original hot water
springs attracted early man to this area and in modern times it was
a natural progression that a spa should be built here in order that
people could enjoy and take advantage of the 'therapeutic' waters.
The Bushmen of old knew this area, and where the hot water spring
bubbled to the surface the place was called /Anhes (or Annis or
Glenelg-Bath). During the early years of the nineteenth-century the
people of the Red-Nation of Hoachanas, the Swartbooi-clan had
settled here, and in 1845 the Rhenish missionary Franz-Heinrich
Kleinschmidt ( a trained carpenter and blacksmith) established a
mission-station. He named the place Rehoboth using an extract from
Biblical scripture Genesis 26:22 "And he
removed from thence and digged another well; and for that they
strove not; and he called the name of it Rehoboth; and he said, For
now the Lord hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the
land".
It was to this place, some 90km south of
Windhoek,
in 1870 that the long and arduous
Great Trek of the Baster people
came to its conclusion. The pioneers had left the place they had
called De Tuin in the North Western Cape on 4 November 1868 and
ventured north of the Orange River in search of a better and more
independent life. The trekkers that arrived in this area numbered
under 500 people and were under the Captainship of their elected
leader Hermanus van Wyk. It was here that they struck a deal with
the local Swartbooi Chief and purchased the land that became know as
the Rehoboth Gebiet for the price of
100 horses and 5 wagons. It was here that the Baster people settled
and carved their future firmly and with pride into the annals of Namibia's history.
About 9km south of the
town, on an unmarked and narrow gravel road is a large Acacia forest
that makes for an attractive picnic area.
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Lutheran Church |
Oanab Dam |
Acacia Forest |
Ancient Remains |
A Gibeon Meteorite |
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Rehoboth area and
mining:
Deposits of gold and copper have been worked in this
area since ancient times, and it was during the late 1980s that the
excavations of archaeologist Dr. Beatrice Sandelowsky uncovered a series
of copper smelting hearths that the San Bushmen had used long before
the Bantu migrated south. Interestingly, glass beads known to have
been made in India and/or in Europe were found in grave sites of 200
to 300 years old, and we are left to wonder by which ancient trade
route these were brought into this area.
The Reho Spa: The original hot water
springs attracted early man to this area and in modern times it was
a natural progression that a spa should be built here in order that
people could enjoy and take advantage of the 'therapeutic' waters.
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Travel
To
By Road - Self Drive: Drive the B1 south from Windhoek
Distances from (km / miles)
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By
Rail - Scheduled Services
By
Road - Scheduled Services
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Gobabis |
Kalkrand |
Keetmanshoop |
Mariental |
Swakopmund |
Windhoek |
| 292 / 181 |
99 / 61 |
406 / 252 |
178 / 110 |
452 / 281 |
89 / 55 |
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Did You Know ?
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- In the 1st World War the Germans declared war against the
Basters of Rehoboth. The Basters made the rugged area known as
Sam Kubis their fighting ground and held off the enemy assault
until 8 May 1915 when the Germans made a tactical retreat owing
to the advancing South African troops.
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