Parys at a glance
The Free State soil is rich and the climate pleasant for a thriving agricultural industry. The province is high lying, with most land being 1,000 meters above sea level. The Drakensberg and Maloti Mountains foothills raise the terrain to over 2,000 meters. The Free State lies in the heart of the Karoo with minerals like gold and diamonds being of particular importance, mostly found in the north and west of the province.
The cheetahs were reintroduced in the Free State for the first time in June 2013 after a hundred years of regional extinction. With an adult female cheetah reintroduction in early 2016, three wild cheetah cubs were born for the first time at the Laohu Valley Reserve in February 2017, making the three new cubs the first cheetahs born in the wild since their disappearance from the Free State province in over a century.
The Free State experiences a climate characterized by warm to hot summers and cool to cold winters from Sasolburg, Parys, Vredefort, Kroonstad, Welkom to Bethlehem. Areas in the east experience frequent snowfalls especially on the higher ranges around Harrismith, Bethlehem and Ficksburg. The capital city is Bloemfontein that experiences hot moist summers and cold dry winters frequented by severe frost.
The Free State borders more provinces of South Africa than any other province.