Tswaing Crater

A young impact crater just outside Pretoria, with a salt lake on its floor and a visitor centre on its rim.

Key facts

Where

north of Pretoria, South Africa

Kind

Visitor site

Visiting

Open-air site or visitor centre

Tswaing, whose name means place of salt, is a crater about 1.1 kilometres across about 40 kilometres north of Pretoria. It is thought to have formed about 220,000 years ago, when a body perhaps 30 to 50 metres across struck the granite there. A shallow salty lake on its floor was used for centuries as a source of salt and soda.

Drilling through the sediments on the crater floor found broken and shocked rock beneath, proving that it was made by an impact and not by a volcano. The crater is protected, with a small visitor centre and a trail around the rim.

Highlights

• Tswaing 1.1-kilometre crater

Related pages

Opening times, what is on display and access to research collections change over time, so check with the institution before you visit.