[2] The Pilanesberg is named for chief Pilane[3] of the Kgafêla people, who ruled from Bogopane, Mmamodimokwana and eventually Mmasebudule during the 1800s.

This vast circular feature is geologically ancient, being the ring dikes that fed a completely eroded caldera created by volcanic eruptions some 1,200 million years ago.

Scattered throughout the park are various sites that are assigned to the Iron and Stone Ages and illustrate the presence of man during those early periods.

The park has an area of 572 square kilometres (221 sq mi), and visitors can travel through in a standard road vehicle.

There is one perennial river and a number of freshwater and saline springs that form smaller dams with animal hides nearby.

[7][8] The Pilanesberg is not in a location which the Big Five animals would naturally inhabit, however they have been brought into the 550 square kilometres of African bushland.

There is a self-guided trail in the Walking Area at the Manyane Complex in the east, which offers environmental education whilst game viewing and bird watching on foot.

A mission station was established more or less in the northwestern part of the park, on the farm Driefontein, which lay wedged between a large section of land traditionally owned by the Bakgatla-ba-Kgafela (commonly known as the Bakgatla) tribe.

What is now the southern section of the Pilanesberg reserve was originally a set of farms which were sold to and registered in the names of a number of Boer farmers by the South African Republic government in the 1860s.

These farms, situated on and in the southern part of the Pilanesberg reserve adjacent to Sun City, North West, were subsequently delivered to Bophuthatswana, a large northwestern bantustan, for administration and control.

(The magistrate court building, a lovely Cape Dutch style structure, burned down in an accidental blaze in the 1980s.

Additionally, all non-native flora were razed from the region in an attempt to ensure only authentic native plant life would exist in the park.

Following negotiations with the Bophuthatswana government, the Bakgatla tribe, under Chief Tsidimane Pilane, agreed to the inclusion of the mountainous region of their property within the Pilanesberg reserve.

The 60 families of the Bakgatla tribe farming and living near the mission station at Driefontein were re-settled under an agreement with the tribal authority.

It was at this point that work began on Operation Genesis, which involved the reintroduction of long-vanished species after completion of approximately 100  km of fencing around the reserve's perimeter.

This reintroduction was still ongoing when the Pilanesberg National Park, was opened in the early 1980s by President Mangope with Chief Pilane present.

6000 animals were resettled into the park over the course of the early 1980s with Operation Genesis, which was featured on a two-part episode on Wild Kingdom in 1981.

[6] Operation Genesis is still the largest game translocation undertaken in the world, and as a result, the park now has in excess of 10,000 animals.

The size of the park was increased from 552 to 572  km2 in May 2004 as part of a workable 10-year plan to establish a corridor between Pilanesberg and Madikwe Game Reserve.