Voortrekker Monument facts for kids
The Voortrekker Monument is a monument in Pretoria in South Africa. It is a massive granite structure on a hilltop. It was built to commemorate the Voortrekkers who left the Cape Colony between 1835 and 1854.
Most of the Voortrekkers were not satisfied with the British government that ruled over them in the Cape in those years, that is why they packed their ox wagons and started to trek to greener valleys to the north of current South Africa.
It was much hardship that they had to endure for almost 20 years, both from the rural terrain as well as many hostile inhabitants they had to face. This makes the Voortrekker Monument an important structure to the white Afrikaner bloodline (children), because it shows many pictures, reliefs and statutes inside the building of what happened in the history of those years.
Images for kids
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Wounded Voortrekker at Vegkop, detail of the historical frieze
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South window and frieze
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The Cenotaph
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The wagon laager wall features 64 wagons
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Voortrekker woman and children by Anton van Wouw
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The cenotaph is the symbolic tomb of Piet Retief and his delegation.
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Looking from the sky dome downwards, 32 sun rays can be counted, reflecting the masonic influence of the architecture
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Looking upwards at mid noon on 16 December reveals a dot within a circle, the ancient African-Egyptian hieroglyph for the monotheistic creator god Aten
See also
In Spanish: Monumento al voortrekker para niños
