Malapa Museum
Photo: wikimedia — CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The Malapa Museum, located in the Cradle of Humankind near Johannesburg, showcases significant paleoanthropological discoveries, including life-size casts of Australopithecus sediba fossils.
Planning your visit
Malapa is one of the most significant hominid sites found in decades. In 2008 Lee Berger's nine-year-old son, exploring while his father surveyed, spotted a fossil clavicle protruding from a rock — the first evidence of Australopithecus sediba, a species roughly two million years old showing a mix of australopithecine and Homo features that placed it near the origins of our own genus.
The site sits in the Cradle of Humankind, a UNESCO World Heritage Area northwest of Johannesburg where the limestone caves have produced a substantial proportion of all known early hominid fossils, including Mrs Ples and the later Homo naledi finds at Rising Star.
The museum presents life-size casts of the sediba fossils, the excavation story and the palaeoanthropological context.
Bookable options are generally human origins day tours from Johannesburg combining Malapa with the Sterkfontein caves and the Maropeng visitor centre, which is the coherent way to see the area. Current availability is listed below.
Before you book
Where is Malapa Museum?
Malapa Museum is in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Do I need to book Malapa Museum in advance?
Tickets can be bought on the door at quiet times, but booking ahead fixes the date and avoids the queue at busy ones. Live availability is shown on this page.
