Isandlwana

The account

Under a sphinx-shaped crag, 20,000 Zulu warriors fell on a British column and destroyed it, the Empire's worst defeat by an indigenous army, spears against rifles, and the spears won. Whitewashed cairns still mark where the dead lie. It is among the best-preserved colonial battlefields in Africa.

Leads, where the trail points now

• The field is at Isandlwana, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, and arms, shot, and relics still come out of the ground there.
• Detecting or digging needs landowner or park permission, and any significant find should be recorded; many battlefields are protected.
• Work the documented account of Isandlwana to learn where the fighting, the camps, and the rout actually ran before you look.