Voortrekker Monument

Faits

• The lower hall features a granite cenotaph so situated that the ray of sunshine falls on the inscription every noon on 16 December every year (the Battle of Blood River) and a niche holding an ever-burning flame.
• At the monument's entrance is Anton van Wouw's sculpture of a Voortrekker mother and children.
• It is set on Monument Hill and commemorates the Great Trek of the 1830s. It is regarded as a shrine by many Afrikaners: a memorial to the founders of their republics and a symbol of Afrikaner identity.
• The main block is comprised of two chambers: the domed, 30m-high Hall of Heroes, its walls lined by a frieze of 27 marble panels (their combined length is 92m) depicting the Great Trek's main events, and a lower hall.
• Groundbreaking was held on 13th July 1937 whilst the cornerstone was laid on 16th December 1949.