JOHANNESBURGJohannesburg, the business and financial capital of South Africa, developed after the discovery of the Main Reef by George Harrison and George Walker on the farm Langlaagte in March 1886. The site of this significant discovery can be seen in George Harrison Park, about 11 km west of the city centre. The discovery of gold resulted in a rush of fortune-seekers, and a shanty town of over 2 000 inhabitants sprung up. Laid out on the farm Randjieslaagte, the settlement was named after Johann Rissik, an official in the office of the Surveyor-General of the Transvaal Republic, and Christiaan Johannes Joubert, chief of mining and a member of the Volksraad (Parliament). |
|
Also known as eGoli, a Sotho name meaning ‘city of gold’, Johannesburg 3 is a vibrant, cosmopolitan city, and its attractions are many and varied. Among the most important are Gold Reef City and Soweto, South Africa’s most famous black city – comprising 27 townships and 30-odd informal settlements. Tours of Soweto have become popular, and a number of outfits offer such excursions. MuseumAfrika, in the city centre, focuses on the peoples of southern Africa, and incorporates the Geological Museum, Museum of South African Rock Art and the Bensusan Museum of Photography. Johannesburg’s other museums focus on themes as diverse as the history of the dynamite industry and music to Judaism, period costumes and military history. |
|
Popular outdoor attractions include the 100-ha Herman Eckstein Park, with its zoological gardens, Melville Koppies, an important archaeological site, Delta Park and Melrose Bird Sanctuary. There are several cultural villages in close proximity to the city centre, among them Phumangena Zulu Kraal, Lesedi Cultural Village and Sibaya Zulu Kraal. Also of cultural interest is the Gertrude Poset Gallery with its fine collection of beadwork, masks, headdresses and other forms of African art from southern, central and western Africa. The city also has a wide range of galleries, jazz clubs, restaurants and theatres to choose from. |
WITWATERSRAND NATIONAL BOTANICAL GARDEN...is one of eight National Botanical Gardens run by the National Botanical Institute. Covering 225 ha of landscaped gardens, lawns and natural vegetation, the garden is set against the backdrop of the impressive 70-m-high Witpoortjie Waterfall. In addition to protecting one of the few remaining patches of undisturbed highveld vegetation, the gardens contain an arboretum of indigenous trees, a marsh garden, collections of indigenous shrubs, cycads and succulents and a garden devoted to ferns and shade-loving plants. The cliffs of the waterfall are home to a famous breeding pair of black eagles. In addition to the walkways there is a geological trail, a bird hide overlooking Sasol Lake, an interpretive centre and a restaurant. |
CRADLE OF HUMANKIND...is the collective name for the fossil hominid sites of Sterkfontein, Swartkrans, Kromdraai and environs which were declared a World Heritage Site in 1999. Situated in the dolomite hills north of Krugersdorp, Sterkfontein is one of the richest early hominid (early human) sites in the world. Significant finds made here include Mrs Ples, the first complete hominid skull (discovered in 1947), and the fossil skeleton of Little Foot, a 3,3-million-year-old human-like primate unearthed in 1998. To date, over 600 hominid fossils, thousands of animal fossils, fragments of fossil wood and over 9 000 stone tools have been uncovered in 12 sites within the area since archaeological excavations began here in the 1920s. At Sterkfontein are also a number of underground chambers with magnificent stalagmites, stalactites and other flowstone formations. There are guided tours of the caves, and the adjoining Robert Broom Museum has displays on human evolution and background on the origins and archaeological work carried out at the cave.
Also in the Sterkfontein area is the Wonder Cave, a huge subterranean cavern featuring stalactites and stalagmites up to 15 m high, and the Old Kromdraai gold mine. The gold reef was discovered in 1881 and was proclaimed a public digging in December 1885, the first such proclamation on the Witwatersrand. |
BARTON’S FOLLY...was built during the South African War in 1901 to guard the entrance to Hekpoort, a narrow kloof through the southern slopes of the Magaliesberg, and formed part of a line of blockhouses in the Magaliesberg. Built under the supervision of Major-General Geoffrey Barton, Commanding Officer of the 6th (Fusilier) Brigade, its unusual shape – which differed from the typical two-storey blockhouses of the time – earned it the name Barton’s Folly. |
|
