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Aliwal North Accommodation: Nearby towns with accommodation:
Rhodes Accommodation | Molteno Accommodation | Barkly East Accommodation
Lady Grey Accommodation | Umtata Accommodation | Queenstown Accommodation
Aliwal North is a town in central South Africa on the Orange River, Eastern Cape
Province. Aliwal North is the seat of the Maletswai Local Municipality which falls
within the Ukhahlamba District Municipality.
The principal attractions of Aliwal North are two hot mineral springs, both of
which have extremely high concentrations of minerals and gases.
Aliwal North is named in tribute to Sir Harry Smith. Sir Harry Smith, then
Governor of the Cape Colony, formally founded the small town of Aliwal North in
the Cape Province of South Africa in 1850. He named the town Aliwal North in memory
of his victory over the Sikhs at the Battle of Aliwal during the First Sikh War in
India in 1846.
The park in the centre of Aliwal North, the Juana Square Gardens was named after
Smith's wife Juana Maria de Los Dolores de Leon. One of the first white settlers
in the area, Pieter Jacobus De Wet built a house at nearby Buffelsvlei in about
1828. The settlement of the area and its development into a town probably is
connected to the presence of good water, thermal springs and a good fording place
('drift') across the Orange River, just below its confluence with the Kraai River.
The Frere Bridge was opened in 1880 and later replaced with the General Hertzog
Bridge
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