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Research at Wonderwerk Cave, in the eastern Kuruman Hills, has generated important insights into nearly two million years of human history. The site comprises a 140m deep cave with a 6m archaeological deposits, as well as a portion of the Wonderwerk farm property. It was ceded to the McGregor Museum as a heritage site and public servitude. It is a declared Provincial Heritage Site and has been graded Grade 1 by SAHRA Council. It was nominated as part of a serial nomination, with Border Cave and Klassies River Mouth, for the tentative list for World Heritage Sites, and this has since been changed to an individual nomination for the site._x000D_
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In terms of the criterial set out in Section 3 (3) of the National Heritage Resources Act (Act No. 25 of 1999) Wonderwerk Cave qualifies for national heritage status on several criteria. Research, since the 1940s, into the archaeological deposits within Wonderwerk Cave has tstified to the site's importance in the pattern of South Africa's history. Some 6m deep, the deposits are estimated to span nearly 2 million years. This includes a long Stone Age sequence from Oldowan and Acheulean to Later Stone Age times, ending with evidence of occupation by the first white settlers, who lived in the cave in the early twentieth century._x000D_
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Wonderwerk Cave exhibits rare and endangered aspects of South Africa's cultural heritage. Distinctive rock paintings on the walls date from the last thousand years. In the Later Stone Age levels (c. 11000BP to