The word veld (or velt) indicates primarily but not exclusively broad spaces of the countryside in South Africa, these spaces have a little marked relief and are covered with grass and shrubs. They are exploited by pastoral activities or cereal cultures.

It is a word Afrikaans resulting from the Germanic word and Dutch " feld" who means " champs". It has a direction close to the words " bush" , " prairie" or pampa" employees in other areas of the world to indicate a shrubby savanna.

The interior of South Africa is largely occupied by a high plateau called " Highveld" (High Veld) which starts in the east of Johannesburg. It is about a plate of altitude rather high (1500 meters of average altitude), generally dish or slightly corrugated, characterized by grassy extents, with a semi-arid climate: dryness and sunny in winter (20° C the day but cold the night with 5° C on average) and with torrid and stormy days from October at April.

In the East, the Large Escarpment which is stretched of west in is between the Cape with Johannesbourg and culminates with more 3400m in Drakensberg constitutes separation between the top and low Veld.

The three narrow coastal plains on the Indian Ocean, of less low altitude and with the climate very hot in summer but soft and sunny in winter, constitute the " Lowveld" (Low Veld) and are less agricultural. This not very hospital area is called " the area of the fièvres" because of paludism; it, until the middle of the XXe century, was also infested by the tsetse fly carrying the disease of the sleep. It is in these plains which are the majority of the great animalist reserves as the Parc Kruger that the abundant rains of the southern summer covers with a called shrubby savanna thornveld.

One of the characteristic of the veld is also the presence of large typical rock clusters: kopjes.

Although indicating areas with the different characteristics, the word " veld" is closely associated with the landscapes and the history of South Africa, with Dutch colonization in particular (see afrikaner and Boer).

Bonds

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