Emlembe

Where is Emlembe?

Emlembe is part of the Drakensberg Escarpment.

You will find it in: Eswatini.

Summit: 25.917° S, 31.133° E

The story behind it

Emlembe rises at the edge of the Drakensberg escarpment, the great step where the high inland plateau drops towards the lower country of eastern Eswatini. The summit is not a rocky peak but a broad hump of tough mountain grass, with dark boulders pushing through the turf and small streams starting in the folds below. Cold, wet air comes up from the valleys and turns into mist, so the mountain is often hidden even when the sky nearby is clear. Around it stand huge plantations of pine and eucalyptus, planted in rows on land that was once open grassland, and the old mining town of Bulembu lies just below. Walkers reach the top from tracks near the border with South Africa, which follows the ridge line here, and in winter the grass turns straw-coloured and frost whitens the shady side.

Find it on the globe

Emlembe is there as a small peak with its own shape — a horn, a ridge, a volcano — standing on the surface. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.

It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.