Witwatersrand is South Africa’s most important industrial, commercial, and financial urban area. It consists of a 50-mile (80-kilometer) line of towns and cities, with Johannesburg in the middle. The region employs a high percentage of the country’s total work force and produces many goods.
Witwatersrand is the Afrikaans word for ridge of white waters, a name given to the area in the mid-1800’s. The name comes from the streams that fall from the ridge and its quartzite rocks. The Witwatersrand owes its origin as a center of economic development to the discovery of gold. In 1886, gold prospectors discovered the main gold-bearing reef in the area, 3 miles (5 kilometers) west of present-day Johannesburg. This discovery led to the mining of the world’s richest gold deposits.
