Balancing rocks, Matopos, Zimbabwe

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Matobo National Park

Top choice in Zimbabwe


Home to some of the most majestic granite scenery in the world, the Matobo National Park is one of the unsung highlights of Zimbabwe. This Unesco World Heritage Site is a stunning and otherworldly landscape of balancing rocks, kopjes – giant boulders unfeasibly teetering on top of one another. When you see it, it's easy to understand why Matobo is considered the spiritual home of Zimbabwe. The national park is separated into two sections – the recreational park and the game park.

The recreational park includes World’s View (a scenic viewpoint and burial site of Cecil Rhodes) and ancient San rock art caves. The game park may not have the most prolific wildlife in Zimbabwe – it's been hard hit by poaching – but it remains one of the best places to see both black and white rhinos (although the black rhinos are difficult to spot). It also has the highest density of leopards in Zimbabwe, but you'll be extremely lucky to spot one. Matobo is home to one-third of the world’s species of eagle, so you may see black eagles, African hawk eagles or rare Cape eagle owls.