Nestled on the Cape of Good Hope, the southernmost tip of Africa, where the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean meet, Cape Town, Cape Town, is considered the mother city of the country, the starting point from which South Africa’s strong and turbulent history took its first steps. Here are tips on when to visit South Africa.
1 Cape Town: historic center, City Bowl
The historic center is called the City Bowl and it is a true basin surrounded by mountains on three sides. The oldest neighborhoods occupy much of this area, reaching right up to the foot of the mountains, which have preserved their primeval beauty intact. The center can be easily explored on foot, starting from Grand Parade, the main square, the spot where the city was founded in 1652 when a group of settlers led by Jan van Riebeeck, under the orders of the Dutch East India Company, landed in the bay and took root here.
Grand Parade offers very pleasant atmospheres, thanks to the flower stalls, the biweekly market, music, singing, and dancing which are everyday occurrences. It is also a rich melting pot of faces and features, a privileged vantage point to observe the city’s ethnic richness.
2 Cape Town: City Hall, City Hall
The City Hall, City Hall, which dominates it, is an early 20th-century building. It was here that, in 1990, Nelson Mandela gave his first speech as a free man in front of a crowd of one hundred thousand people. Nearby, the Castle of Good Hope (originally a fort built by the settlers) appears, pentagonal in shape, also housing the Military Museum inside.
3 Cape Town: Adderley Street
But the main artery is Adderley Street, which crosses the business district with its forest of skyscrapers, headquarters of banks and companies, clad in the typical red sandstone of the Cape. The upper part of Adderley Street is called Government Avenue, with government buildings, St. George’s Cathedral, built in the early 1900s, and the Slave Lodge, where slaves were once herded while awaiting sale, now the site of a museum dedicated to the history of slavery in South Africa and Cape Town’s social history.
The nearby Company’s Gardens mark a magnificent green lung, shaded by centuries-old oaks, with fountains, ponds, and flower beds.
