GROUND SURFACE OF EXTERIOR OF MAIN WALL
Till August, 1902, the area surrounding the Elliptical Temple was mere veld and bush, and trees and shrubs grew so thickly near the main wall that it was impossible at certain points to penetrate the jungle to make a complete examination of the wall, while piles of soil from excavations lay along the base of the wall, and some up against the wall itself, in some cases to a height of 6 ft. above the average level of the exterior ground.
Trenches and deep holes, the main wall forming one side of them, were lined with mud, and filled with ferns and plants which could only flourish in a situation which was perpetually damp. There was every evidence that these trenches and holes were filled with water during each wet season, and that they retained a considerable amount of moisture even during the dry seasons. At two points this constant state of damp held by these cuttings had caused the foundations, which at no place rest on the bed-rock, to sink some inches, thus imparting wave-like lines to the courses of the wall close to such holes.
To remove this source of injury to the wall by causing it to sink and also by stimulating tree and creeper growths which were damaging the wall, it was decided to remove all such débris piles, and also the veld soil, most of which had in the course of ages silted down from the lower slopes of the Bentberg some 200 yds. distant on the south side of the temple, and to leave a floor of hard soil which would serve to drain off all rain-water and protect the bases of the walls from being washed by the storm streams from the higher ground. This work was carried out for a width of some 6 to 8 yds. round the entire circumference of the temple. Five catchment areas were formed on the north-west, west, south, and east sides, and from each such area a run-off now leads all rain-water into a hole sunk in the ground at some 12 yds. distance from the main wall.
These five holes, as shown later, have proved useful in demonstrating certain features connected with the temple which so far had been impossible of examination:—
(1) The rock formation is at almost every point some feet below the lowest course of the foundations of the main wall, in most cases 3 ft. to 4 ft., and in one instance—the south—fully 6 ft.
(2) The ground outside the temple has been raised by the silting of soil from the slopes of the Bentberg, by the spreading out of both ancient and old native débris piles, by the levelling up of the surface for laying clay floors of Makalanga huts, and by block débris from the main and several minor walls. This filling-in, both natural and artificial, averages to a height of at least 5 ft. above the level known to the ancients, thus reducing the comparative elevation of the temple to that extent. It is now clear that the temple once stood on a comparatively higher and far more imposing elevation than it stands at present.
(3) The granite plateau which underlies the soil upon which the temple is built is irregular, and resembles on a larger scale the granite plateaux which extend eastward from the temple.[51]