Prelims ask
Odd one out in a list of Andes, Alps, Atlas and Drakensberg. Type is escarpment / residual.
Africa · Residual escarpment
Drakensberg
- Countries
- South Africa and Lesotho. The escarpment’s fringe approaches Eswatini.
- Length
- About 1,000 km of escarpment.
- Orientation
- Southwest–northeast.
- Mountain type
- Residual escarpment
- Plates
- Not a plate-boundary range. It is the eroded edge of the southern African plateau, capped in places by basalt.
- Highest peak
- Thabana Ntlenyana, 3,482 m, Lesotho.
- Rivers that rise here
- Senqu, the head of the Orange, rises in the Lesotho highlands. The Tugela drops east off the escarpment to the Indian Ocean.
- Climate and rain shadow
- The face toward the Indian Ocean takes moisture. The high plateau is a watershed, not a fold-belt volcanic arc.
Mains use
Use when the question allows mountain types other than fold: residual relief can still be a major watershed.