The Pound is a synclinal basin with the fold axis running NNW-SSE through Edeowie Gorge at the northern end and Rawnsley's Bluff at the southern.

[3][4] Although from the outside the Pound appears as a single range of mountains, it is actually two: one on the western edge and one on the eastern, joined by the long Rawnsley's Bluff at the south.

The wall of mountains almost completely encircles the gently-sloping interior of the Pound, with the only breaks being the gorge at Wilpena Gap and a high saddle in the south-western range over which the Heysen Trail passes.

The interior of the Pound does not rise to a height at the northern edge, but instead simply drops off very steeply to the plain below in a series of steep gullies.

[6] Edward Eyre was almost certainly the first European to sight the distant peaks of the Pound, while on his first 1839 expedition to the vicinity of Lake Torrens but he did not visit these ranges.

[7] In an attempt to sort out theses conflicting claims over the pastoral lease, Crown Commissioner of Lands, Charles Bonney and Surveyor-General Henry Freeling employed H.C. Rawnsley to go north and survey the area.

Rawnsley only made it to the southern end of the Pound, which had been privately surveyed for the Brownes by Thomas Burr and Frederick Sinnett only a month or two earlier.

However, being in the shadow of some of the highest mountains of the Flinders, rainfall in the Pound is a little higher with snow even being very rarely known on St Mary Peak.

After immense labour to construct a road through the torturous Wilpena Gap, the Hills built a small homestead inside the Pound (which still stands today) and cleared open patches in the thick scrub of the interior.

For several years, the Hill family had moderate success growing crops inside the Pound but, in 1914, there was a major flood and the road through the gorge was destroyed.

A hotel called the Wilpena Chalet was opened on the southern side of the creek just outside the gorge and it has been run by various private companies ever since.

Wilpena is dubiously claimed to be an Aboriginal word meaning "place of bent fingers" and it has been suggested this may be a reference to either the mountains resembling the shape of a gently cupped hand or the freezing cold of the ranges in winter.

The peak directly to the south of Wilpena Gap was known informally through much of the later 20th century as Mount John, reportedly because bus drivers became so tired of tourists asking its name they dubbed it as such.

The Adelaide Bushwalkers produced a detailed map of the Pound in 1959 in which they gave generic aboriginal names[further explanation needed] to many of the eastern peaks: Attunga Bluff ("high place"), Tanderra Saddle ("resting place"), Timburru Peak ("steep"), and Wangara Hill (a popular lookout to the north of Wilpena Gap) date from this map.

Scenic flights are available from unsealed airstrips at Wilpena Pound resort and Rawnsley Park 30 kilometres (19 mi) north east of Hawker.

Arkaroo rock has aboriginal paintings depicting events in Flinders Ranges, such as the formation of Wilpena Pound.

[12] Harold Cazneaux took his famous picture of a lonely tree surviving in the harsh semi-arid climate of Wilpena Pound.

In 1959, 12-year-old Nicholas George Bannon became separated and lost from a group of eight walking inside the Pound and, despite search efforts, died.