page_title: Meiringspoort
section_title: The route
hierarchical_section_title: Meiringspoort / History / The route
caption_attribution_description: English: Meiringspoort, Little Karoo, Western Cape.
context_page_description: Meiringspoort is a South African mountain pass on the N12 national road, where it crosses the Swartberg mountain range.
context_section_description: The pass itself had its origins in a series of petitions from the local people on both sides of the mountains, and in the Molteno report, which ordered the pass's construction in response. 
  John Molteno was an Italian immigrant farmer, who had just been elected to represent much of the Great Karoo region in the new Cape Parliament. 
  In August 1854 he set off on horseback from the village of Beaufort West, together with the two great road engineers Thomas and Andrew Geddes Bain and a friend, Charles Pritchard. After several days journey the four riders reached the Swartberg, and they then spent considerable time exploring the valleys and mountains of the range. Among other routes, they made a crossing along the route that the current road follows.
  The Bains favoured a more eastern pass through the Swartberg, along the slopes they had explored in the Toorwater Poort. It was an easier, more efficient crossing to construct for engineering purposes, however it was 50 km east, which would have meant an extra 4 or 5 days travel for every journey across the mountains. Molteno's report therefore chose the route of the current pass. It created a select committee in 1856, which allocated funds, led to the surveying of the chosen route, and the employment of a team of paid labourers (not convict labour as was common at the time). The report envisioned the pass as a means of connecting the underdeveloped Karoo hinterland with the port at Mossel Bay, thereby stimulating exports from the hinterland and the overall Karoo economy.
caption: The Herrieklip, Meiringspoort
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