What if one of Joburg’s oldest beaches wasn’t along the coast – but right beneath your hiking boots?

That is one of the remarkable stories geologist Professor Jill Drennan shared during her Written in Stone talk at Melville Koppies, where she invited visitors to see the landscape not as a collection of rocks, but as pages from Earth’s oldest history book.

“People often just think, ‘Oh, some rocks.’ But when they realise these steep ridges were once an ancient beach, it should blow their minds.”

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According to Drennan, the rocks at Melville Koppies preserve evidence of one of the earliest beaches in the region, dating back billions of years. Long before Durban’s coastline existed, this was where prehistoric microbes would have lived beside an ancient shoreline.

One of the site’s most overlooked treasures lies along a footpath near the ravine, where visitors unknowingly walk past the contact between ancient Archaean granite and overlying quartzite sediments.

“You can literally put your finger on the very first grains of sand ever deposited in this region,” she explained.

For Drennan, geology is about far more than studying rocks.

It provides vital clues about climate change, rising sea levels and how landscapes have evolved over immense periods of time.

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“If you understand the rocks, you understand how nature has adapted before,” she said, adding that this helps us think about how we must adapt today.

She also hopes Joburg residents begin looking more closely at their surroundings, from ridges and valleys to mine dumps that many mistakenly believe are natural hills.

Those mine dumps, she explained, are the remains of historic gold mining and can still contain hazardous substances such as cyanide and mercury, highlighting the importance of understanding the city’s geological heritage.

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For Drennan, protecting Melville Koppies is about preserving far more than beautiful scenery.

“If this place disappeared, we’d lose not only billions of years of geological history but also important archaeological sites, including ancient kraals and iron-smelting remains,” she said.

She ended by saying geology is everywhere.

“Once you learn to read the rocks, they’ll start telling you their story.

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