Hole-in-the-Wall

Just south of Coffee Bay, a tiny resort town along South Africa’s Wild Coast, a massive rocky sentinel sits astride the surf, as if guarding the mouth of the Mpako River. 

The well over 200 foot (80 meters) high, 1 000 foot (300 meters) long shore-side cliff is composed of 260 million-year-old sandstone and shale, and capped with volcanic dolerite. At its base, the Indian Ocean thunders and roars through a gaping, almost-round hole through the rock. It is known to the amaXhosa as esiKhaleni, the “Place of Sound,” but is commonly known as the Hole-in-the-Wall. 

According to geologists, the ocean eroded the soft dolerite underbelly of the cliff to form the iconic archway. The indigenous amaXhosa people however tell a different story about its creation. 

Local Bomvana folklore states that a beautiful girl once lived in the village along the banks of the Mpako, when it was still a landlocked lagoon protected from the sea by the cliff.

One day, one of the legendary semi-aquatic sea-people saw the girl sunning on the rock against her father’s wishes. The two fell instantly in love.

The girl’s father strictly forbade her from seeing her lover. One night during high tide, the sea-people gathered at the base of the cliff. With the help of a giant fish, the sea-people rammed the hole into the base of the rock and swam into the lagoon.

They sang, shouted, and screamed. Frightened villagers ran and hid in fear. In the midst of the confusion as the story goes, the girl slipped back into the sea with them, never to be seen again. It’s said that at high tide on a full moon, the song of the sea-people can still be heard reverberating through the hole. 

Some amaXhosa also believe the hole is the gateway to the world of their ancestors.