MONT-AUX-SOURCES

mountain plateau and plateau summit, in the Drakensberg range, at the juncture of KwaZulu/Natal and Free State provinces in South Africa and by Lesotho. Explored in 1836 by two French Protestant missionaries, the summit was named Mont-aux-Sources (Mountain of Sources) because it was a watershed of the Orange (south), Vaal (north), Tugela (east), and other rivers. A basalt plateau, it lies at an elevation of about 10,000 feet (3,050 m) and is mostly within Lesotho. The plateau ascends eastward to a summit of 10,823 feet (3,299 m) at the LesothoKwaZulu/Natal border. That summit and other nearby peaks of the plateau's edge form massive, steep cliffs overlooking KwaZulu/Natal at the western edge of South Africa's Royal Natal National Park.