Karoo Karoo biome. The number of mainly succulent plant species is very high for an arid area of this size anywhere in the world. The Nama Karoo biome is located entirely on the central plateau mostly at altitudes between 1000 and 1500 m. It incorporates nearly the whole of the historical and geographical Great Karoo, but also includes a portion of southern Namibia's Namaqualand, and South Africa's Bushmanland" (both local geographical names, not names of biomes). It is the second-largest biome in South Africa, and forms the botanical transition between the Fynbos biome to the south and the savannah biome to
Karoo in the east, where the Langeberg range (arbitrarily) starts to be called the Outeniqua Mountains. The Little Karoo can only be accessed by road through the narrow defiles cut through the surrounding Cape Fold Mountains by ancient, but still flowing, rivers. A few roads traverse the mountains over passes, the most famous and impressive of which is the Swartberg Pass between Oudtshoorn in the Little Karoo and Prince Albert on the other side of the Swartberg mountains in the Great Karoo. Also, the main road between Oudtshoorn and George, on the coastal plain, crosses the mountains to the south via