Did You Know?
The Heliograph Site near De Aar in the Northern Cape dates to the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899–1902). De Aar was a strategic railway junction and a key British military base during the war. Heliographs were used by both British and Boer forces for long-distance communication, using mirrors to flash sunlight in Morse code across the arid landscape. This specific site likely served as a communication post linking British garrisons or observation points in the region. The use of heliographs was critical in the open, flat terrain of the Karoo, where line-of-sight communication was possible over many kilometers. Today, the site is a historical marker of military signaling technology from that era.
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