Matobo means 'bald heads' in the Ndebele language - because the smooth, round, mossy boulders really do look a bit like giant heads. Geologists think the rocks were once underground. Soft soil washed away from around them over millions of years, leaving the hard granite boulders behind, balanced in odd shapes.
Long before there were cities or towns, people sheltered in the caves of Matobo. They left paintings on the cave walls - over 3,000 different ones have been counted. The paintings show animals (elephants, giraffes, antelopes), hunters with bows, dancers and patterns. Some of them are more than 13,000 years old. The artists used minerals and plant juices to make the colours.
Today, Matobo is a national park. Black eagles soar between the boulders, and the park has one of the highest concentrations of leopards in the world (though they are very shy and hard to see). Rhinos live here too, protected by rangers who patrol on foot every day.
The hills are a sacred place for the local people. The Mwali religious shrine at Njelele in Matobo has been an important place of prayer for hundreds of years - people travel from across Zimbabwe and beyond to ask for rain at the start of the planting season.