Kathu is a town in South Africa, and the iron ore capital of the Northern Cape province. Its name means "town under the trees", after the Camel Thorn forest it is situated in. The phrase "the town under the trees" was coined by an engineer working in the town in the early 1990 as part of a tourist marketing drive, together with the accompanying graphic. It was intended to be a marketing slogan. The meaning of the word "Kathu" has anecdotically been attributed to a porridge brewed by the local population from the powder found in the pods of the Camel Thorn trees. The Camel Thorn tree Acacia erioloba forest is one of only two in the world with the other being between Mariental and Rehoboth in Namibia. Its uniqueness was recognized in the early 1920’s when it was declared a State Forest. In 1995 it was registered as a Natural Heritage Site. The Kathu forest is approximately 4000 hectares in size and these Camel thorns trees provide support for large Sociable Weaver’s nests and are used by many other bird and animal species. In fact surveys has shown a moderate to high diversity in animal and plant species, including several Red Data, endemic and protected species in and around the forest. Bigger trees in the forest are reckoned to be older than 300 years.
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