History

In 1878, when the town was first formed, the name nu Bethesda was misspelt as "Nieu Bethesda". "New Bethesda" is also popular. Other creative misspellings include: New, Nu, Nieuw, Niew, Bethesda, Betesda, Bathesda, Batesda, Bethesta, [...]

The history of South Africa is marked by immigration and ethnic conflict. The Khoisan peoples are the aboriginal people of South Africa who have lived here for millennia. Black South Africans are believed to originate [...]

The Great Karoo has an area of more than 400,000 square kilometers. From a geological point of view it has been a vast inland basin for most of the past 250 million years. At one [...]

The Earliest inhabitants of the Camdeboo area were early, middle and later Stone Age people. There is evidence of this in the Stone Age industry sites on the south eastern plains of the Camdeboo National [...]

Nieu-Bethesda was established by Rev. Charles Murray, the Dutch Reformed minister in Graaff-Reinet. On seeing the beautiful valley with its fertile soil. He is reported to have said “Laten wy deze plaats nu Bethesda noemen” [...]

In 1875, a commission appointed by the Graaff-Reinet Dutch Reformed Church, purchased portion of the farm, Uitkyk, from A.S. & J.P. Pienaar for ₤4000. Plots were sold off to interested parties and the Dutch Reformed [...]

The KhoiSan peoples are the aboriginal people of South Africa who have lived here for millennia. The Khoi The Khoikhoi ("people people" or "real people") or Khoi, in standardised Khoekhoe/Nama orthography spelled Khoekhoe, are a [...]

{nomultithumb} by A de V Minnaar (HSRC) from the Military History Journal, Vol 7 No 3 - June 1987 The Graaff-Reinet experience of the Second Anglo-Boer War is of particular interest in that it covered [...]