Explore the Drakensberg Mountains With Stephen Alvarez
Stephen finds a cinematic landscape unlike anything else he's seen in the world as he journeys through the uKhahlamba-Drakensberg area.
January 01, 2010
3 min readSurrounded by the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, South Africa contains some of the most breathtaking scenery on earth. National Geographic Channel has filmed nine remarkable short films in which some of the finest National Geographic Photographers laud the beauty of this singular nation.
Introduction
Stephen Alvarez, a National Geographic photographer since 1995, is renowned for producing global photo stories on exploration, conservation, culture and religion.
His work at National Geographic began with an assignment that took him more than 20,000 feet up into the Peruvian Andes to photograph the discovery of a 500-year-old Inca mummy 'The Ice Maiden', named by Time Magazine as one of the Top 10 Discoveries of all time.
His following assignments included exploration of the caves of Sarawak, Borneo, in an effort to aid their conservation, an expedition into Krubera - the world's deepest cave, and photographing the moai of Easter Island under the Milky Way.
Alvarez has been the recipient of many awards for his work including Communication Arts and Pictures of the Year International.
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About the Drakensberg Mountains
The uKhahlamba-Drakensberg area, spanning 243 000ha forms part of the uKhahlamba-Drakensberg Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The uKhahlamba-Drakensberg is an unspoilt paradise, characterised by thousands of hectares of pristine grasslands and dominated by the dramatic Drakensberg Mountains.
It is described by UNESCO as having "exceptional natural beauty in its soaring basaltic buttresses, incisive dramatic cutbacks, and golden sandstone ramparts", and its geological history lends it a distinctive character as one of the great mountain ranges of the world.
The site’s diversity of habitats protects a high level of endemic and globally threatened species, especially birds and plants. This spectacular natural site also contains many caves and rock-shelters with the largest and most concentrated group of paintings in Africa south of the Sahara, made by the San people over a period of 4,000 years.
With his experience of shooting magnificant landscapes across the globe, Stephen was eager to visit The Drakensberg area, finding its cinematic landscape unlike anything else he's seen in the world.
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