The Blyde River Canyon is a 26 km long canyon located in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa. It is the third-largest canyon on Earth, behind the Grand Canyon and the Fish River Canyon.
Unlike the Grand and Fish River Canyon, the Blyde River Canyon is a “green canyon” which is dominated by subtropical vegetation. The canyon forms part of the Blyde River Canyon Nature Reserve.
The Blyde River Canyon passes a rock formation known as the “Three Rondavels”. So named as the formation resembles three African-style houses or rondavels. This canyon is part of the Panorama Route. This route starts at the town Graskop and includes natural wonders such as the Bourke’s Luck Potholes, the Three Rondavels, Pinnacle Rock and God’s Window.
The canyon and the surrounding Drakensberg escarpment is a very popular tourist region with a well-developed tourism industry supported by good public infrastructure.
Name
The canyon is named for the river that runs through it, the Blyde River, now called the Motlatse River. Blyde means “glad” or “happy” in old Dutch, a name derived from a voortrekkers’ expedition. The ‘happy river’ was thus named in 1844, when Hendrik Potgieter and others returned safely from Delagoa Bay to the rest of their party of trekkers who had considered them dead. While still under this misapprehension they had named the nearby river where they had been encamped, Treurrivier, or ‘mourning river’.
In 2005, the Blyde River was renamed to the Motlatse River, and the Mpumalanga Provincial Government announced that the canyon would be renamed as well.
