Oribi Gorge

{{Short description|Canyon in South Africa}}

{{Use South African English|date=July 2024}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

{{More citations needed|date=August 2012}}

{{Infobox protected area

| name = Oribi Gorge

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| photo = Oribi gorge.jpg

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| photo_caption = View from near Baboon's Castle, Oribi gorge

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| map = South Africa KwaZulu-Natal

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| map_caption = Oribi Gorge on the map of KwaZulu-Natal

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| location = KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

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| coordinates = {{coord|30.7197|S|30.27|E|region:ZA-ZN|format=dms|display=inline,title}}

| coords_ref = {{Cite web |url= http://protectedplanet.net/sites/Oribi_Gorge_Provincial_Nature_Reserve |title= Oribi Gorge Provincial Nature Reserve |work=protectedplanet.net}}

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Oribi Gorge is a canyon in southern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, 35 kilometres north-west of Port Shepstone, which itself is 120 km south of Durban. Oribi Gorge, cut by the Mzimkulwana River, is the eastern gorge of two gorges that cut through the Oribi Flats (flat sugarcane farmlands) of KwaZulu-Natal. The western gorge was formed by the Mzimkulu River. The gorge is approximately {{convert|400|m}} deep, and almost {{convert|5|km}} wide at its widest.

Image:Oribi Gorge Suspension bridge.jpg

Erosion by these rivers have carved out nearly {{convert|30|km}} of spectacular kloofs and crags, covered with subtropical vegetation.{{Cite journal|author=Glen, H. F.|year=1996|title=A description of the vegetation of Oribi Gorge Nature Reserve, Natal, part I|journal=Trees in South Africa|location=Johannesburg, South Africa|publisher=Tree Society of Southern Africa|volume=46|pages=18–27}} In the gorge, the dense forest on the sandstone slopes is home to various small mammals, while the large leguaans excavate their burrows along the riverbanks.{{Cite journal|author=Bayless, Mark K.|year=2002|title=Monitor lizards: a pan-African check-list of their zoogeography (Sauria: Varanidae: Polydaedalus)|journal=Journal of Biogeography|volume=29|issue=12|pages=1643–1701|doi=10.1046/j.1365-2699.2002.00779.x|bibcode=2002JBiog..29.1643B }}

At the base of the cliffs of both gorges the basement rocks are part of the Namaqua-Natal Metamorphic Province, which is over 1000 million years old. The cliffs themselves are formed by Msikaba formation sandstones deposited by fluvial environment about 365 million years ago.{{Cite journal|author=Thomas, R. J.|year=1988|title=The petrology of the Oribi Gorge Suite; Kibaran charnockitic granitoids from southern Natal|journal=South African Journal of Geology |volume=91|issue=2|pages=275–291|url=https://inis.iaea.org/search/search.aspx?orig_q=RN:20007896}} Downstream from the gorges, is a large surface mine producing cement from a limestone deposit. The road through Oribi Gorge was built by Italian prisoners of war.

Oribi Gorge derives its name from the oribi, a small antelope that lives in the gorges.