These are the Kopjes of the Serengeti in Africa. The Serengeti is typically covered with flat grasslands and woodland with the exception of the Kopjes. Below the volcanic rock and ash that form the soil of the Serengeti is a thick layer of extremely old metamorphic rock. In the late Precambrian area, a giant bubble of liquid granite forced it's way up from the liquid layers below the Earth's crust into a Tanganyika Shield. Today, as the softer metamorphic rocks of the Shield wear away, the uneven top of the granite is exposed, forming the kopjes. As the granite is cracked by the repeated heating and cooling under the hot African sun, the kopjes are weathered into unique shaped by the wind. Most kopjes have round boulders on them due to spherical weathering.
Cute Rock Hyrax
The kopjes provide protection from grassfires, water in the ground beneath them, holes, cracks and caves for animals and a vantage point for hunters. Kopjes have a few animals that live exclusively on them such as the Rock hyrax (or Pimbi) and the Kilspringer. They are also home to various insects, snakes, lizards, small mammals, and lions and cheetahs with their cubs. And on top of all this function... they are gorgeous!
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