Western Cape
Sir Francis Drake probably was the first explorer to remark on the Cape's beauty when in 1577 he called it "The fairest Cape that I have seen in the whole circumference of the earth". The first white man to round the Cape, however, was the Portuguese navigator Bartolomeu Diaz in 1488. In 1503 his countryman Antonia Saldanha became the first European to climb Table Mountain. The colonisation of South Africa, however, began only on April 6, 1652 when a Dutch merchant, Jan van Riebeeck, landed in Table Bay and established, on behalf of the Dutch East India Company, a supply base for the company's ships on their long and arduous voyage to India. the site was well chosen: springs under Table Mountain supplied abundant fresh water, the soil was fertile, and increasing areas of land were developed by settlers from Holland, Germany and France. Cape Town became known as the "tavern of the seas" and the little village developed in the course of time into a town of traders, officials and craftsmen which from 1806 to 1910 was the capital of the British Cape Colony. Since 1910, as the seat of Parliament, Cape Town has been the legislative capital of South Africa, Pretoria the Administrative capital and Bloemfontein the Judicial capital.
Tours
Game & Safari Lodges
What to see and do in and around Cape Town
Historical Buildings and
Museums
Castle of Good Hope - City
centre
Houses of Parliament - City centre
South African Museum - City centre
Recreational and Outdoor
Botanical Company Gardens - City centre
Table Mountain Cableway - 2km from city centre
Victoria & Alfred Waterfront area - 1km from city centre
Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens - Near City
Cape Point & Cape of Good Hope N.R. - 50km from City
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