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Lydenburg Accommodation: Nearby towns with accommodation:
Kruger Park Accommodation | Nelspruit Accommodation | Sabie Accommodation
White River Accommodation | Graskop Accommodation | Hazyview Accommodation
Lydenburg is a town in Mpumalanga, South Africa. The town is slated to be renamed Mashishing, according to an announcement made on June 30, 2006 by the South African Minister of Arts and Culture, Pallo Jordan. Lydenburg is situated on the Sterkspruit/Dorps River tributary of the Olifants River at the base of the Long Tom Pass. The name is derived from Dutch meaning "Town of Suffering." It has become the centre of the South African fly-fishing industry and is an agricultural and mining centre.
The earliest known forms of African sculpture in southern Africa dating back to AD 400 was found in the area in the late 1950s. Lydenburg was founded in 1849 by a group of Voortrekkers under the leadership of Andries Potgieter when they abandoned their previous settlement Ohrigstad (to the north) due to a malaria epidemic. The town became the capital of the Lydenburg Republic ('De Republiek Lydenburg in Zuid Afrika') in 1856 and later in 1857 joined the Republic of Utrecht but in 1860 both these republics joined the Zuid Afrikaanse Republiek (ZAR).
Lydenburg became important because it was on the wagon route to the port of Delagoa Bay (Maputo) which was free of British control. In 1871 construction of the road was started by Abraham Espag under the orders of President Thomas Francois Burgers. The first wagons arrived in Lydenburg from Delagoa Bay in 1874.
On 6 February 1873 alluvial gold was discovered and within 3 months the Lydenburg goldfields was proclaimed.
By 1910 the railway reached Lydenburg. In 1927 it became a municipality.
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