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Harrismith, named after Sir Harry Smith who was a British governor of the Cape Colony, is a large town in the Free State province of South Africa. It is situated by the Wilge River, on the N3 highway approximately midway between Johannesburg, about 300 km north-west, and Durban. The town is at the junction with the N5 highway, which continues west towards the provincial capital Bloemfontein, around 340 km south-west. This important crossroads in South Africa's land trade routes is surrounded by mesas and buttes and located at base of one of these called ''Platberg'' ("Flat Mountain" translated from Afrikaans). ==History== The town was founded in 1849 and named after British Governor Harry Smith, who tried to persuade the Voortrekkers not to abandon Natal. The town was initially laid out by Robert Moffat about 25 km from the present location, in present day Aberfeldy on the Elands River. This site unfortunately proved to be deficient in water and Harrismith was shifted to its present site in January 1850. Twenty-four years later it became a municipality and during the diamond rush at Kimberley, the town became a busy staging post on the Natal transport route. As a direct result of this, hotels, stores and public buildings sprang up. Harrismith was a major base during the South African (Anglo-Boer) War and visitors can see the several blockhouses, engineering works and a military cemetery that are evidence of this. The town's main street, Warden Street, is named after Major Henry D. Warden, at that time a British resident in Bloemfontein. The town is around 90 kilometers west from Ladysmith, a town named after Sir Harry Smith's wife that is located in the KwaZulu-Natal province. It is a similar distance east of Bethlehem The small nearby hamlet of Swinburne is named after Sir Johan Swinburne, a gold prospector. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Harrismith」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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