Matjiesfontein surrounding Karoo region is a flat, sparsely populated semi-desert. Matjiesfontein has a healthy climate for people with lung complaints, and was once home to a Victorian spa and health resort. Matjiesfontein Matjiesfontein is a settlement in Central Karoo District Municipality in the Western Cape province of South Africa. The original inhabitants of the region were the Khoikhoi herders and the San hunter gatherers. Following the arrival of the early European colonists, the area was settled by Afrikaaner Trekboers and Griqua people. The town itself owes its existence to the Cape Government Railways, and to the route that their founder, Cape
Karoo sediments. This exposed the dolerite sills, which were more resistant to erosion than the Karoo sediments, forming one of the most characteristic features of the Karoo landscape, namely the flat topped hills, called "Karoo Koppies". The geology of the region bears no resemblance to that of the Great Karoo (see the diagram on the left, of a NS geological cross-section through the Little and Great Karoos). The valley is an integral part of the Cape Fold Mountain Belt, with the two ranges on either side composed of extremely hard, erosion-resistant, quartzitic sandstone belonging to the 450- to 510-million-year-old Table Mountain