Mpumalanga lies in the eastern part of South Africa, north of KwaZulu-Natal and bordering on Swaziland and Mozambique. In the north Mpumalanga borders on Limpopo to the north, Gauteng to the west, Free State to the southwest and KwaZulu-Natal to the south. Nelspruit is the capital of Mpumalanga and is located on the Crocodile river. Nelspruit is a key manufacturing and agricultural hub for South Africa and major industries include the canning of citrus fruit, paper production, furniture manufacture and timbermills.
The Mpumalanga province of South Africa is a popular tourism destination for visitors throughout the world. South Africa's national game park, the Kruger National Park, is one of the most popular destinations for visitors to Mpumalanga. The park was established in 1898 for the protection of Lowveld wildlife and covers 20,000 square kilometres of unspoilt territory. Some of the popular tourist towns in Mpumalanga include Barberton, Nelspruit, White River, Sabie, Graskop. Hazyview, Malelane and Nkomazi.
Mpumalanga is divided by the Drakensberg mountains into a westerly half consisting mainly of high-altitude grassland called the Highveld and an eastern half situated in low altitude subtropical Lowveld, mostly comprised of savanna habitat. Some of the oldest rocks on earth are to be found in the Barberton area and the Lowveld is underlaid by African Cratonic Basement rocks of ages in excess of 2 billion years. The Highveld is mostly Karoo Sequence sedimentary rocks of a younger, Carboniferous to Permian age.
The lowveld region of the Mpumalanga province of South Africa has a subtropical climate. The highveld region of Mpumalanga is comparatively much cooler because of its higher altitude. The highest rainfall in the province occurs in the Drakensberg escarpment region while the rest of Mpumalanga is moderately well-watered by mostly summer thunderstorms with winter rainfall a rarity.
The climatic contrasts in Mpumalanga allow for a variety of agricultural activities with more than 68% of Mpumalanga utilised by agriculture. Crops include maize, wheat,sorghum, barley, sunflower seed, soybeans, groundnuts, sugar cane, vegetables, coffee, tea, cotton, tobacco, citrus, and subtropical fruit. Forestry is extensive around Sabie in the far north of Mpumalanga. Natural grazing covers approximately 14% of Mpumalanga and the main products are beef, mutton, wool, poultry and dairy.
