Thaba Bosiu is a sandstone Plateau, at the historic and spiritual heart of the Sotho Kingdom, in Lesotho. Rising to an altitude of 1,800m only 20km East of Maseru, this near-impregnable sandstone plateau served as the residence and military stronghold of Moshoeshoe I, the kingdom’s founding father, throughout most of his mid-19th Century reign. Sotho oral tradition has it that Thaba Bosiu - literally ‘Mountain of Night’ - was so named by Moshoeshoe because he and his followers, who arrived there in the chilly midwinter of 1824, made the initial ascent to the plateau after dark.