The town has about 41,000 inhabitants and is situated along the main road between the capital Gaborone and the second largest city Francistown.

Mahalapye has a bus station, a railway station, a couple of hotels and a market area with many shops and fast food restaurants, Water Shed mall is the latest attraction to those travelling from Gaborone to Francistown.

Being situated on the edge of the Kalahari desert, the town and its local waterways are quite dry, except during the rainy season.

Thus at approximately 13:11 hours on 21 December, or at solar noon on Summer Solstice, the sun will be directly overhead at this site.

To mark this geographic feature there is a small monument just outside town on the 23rd parallel, or 23 degrees South of the equator.