Pages Navigation Menu

Cape Town (SAR)

Cape Town

Cape Town

A journey to South Africa was planned a long time ago. Negotiations were held, plans were scrutinized, and all formalities related to the future trip were worked out. The journey lasted for eleven days: from April 8 to April 19. We used Dutch carrier KLM’s services to fly to Cape Town. First, we flew to Amsterdam and made a connection there to board a plane heading for Cape Town. The flight time from Amsterdam to Cape Town was 11 hours and 30 minutes. During this time we crossed Europe and the entire African continent. Around 10 pm, our plane landed in Cape Town. At the airport we were met by our guide in SAR, Irene Martens.

From the airport we went to have some rest at a lodge, intending to start our journey and get acquainted with Cape Town and its vicinities the next morning. South African Republic lies in the Southern Hemisphere of the Earth on the southern tip of Africa. When it is spring season here, in the southern hemisphere it is autumn. And April is one of the most comfortable months to travel in SAR.

Cape Town (Dutch Kaapstad) — is the second most populated city after Johannesburg in South Africa. It is located in the south-west of the country, on the Atlantic Ocean coast, not far from the Cape of Good Hope. It is the capital of the Western Cape Province, the legislative capital of SAR. It is a part of the Cape Town City County.

South Africa’s parliament and many other governmental bodies are located in Cape Town. The city is famous for its harbour and such world-wide known attractions as Table Mountain, Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point. Cape Town is often called one of the most beautiful cities in the world and it is the most popular tourist destination in South Africa.

Cape Town developed as a supply station for Dutch ships on their way from Europe to Eastern Africa, India and other places in Asia; it played a significant role in this quality for over 200 years, until the Suez Canal was opened in 1869. Founded on April 6 of 1652 by Dutch colonists under the command of Jan van Riebeeck, Cape Town was the first permanent European settlement in Africa south of Sahara. Cape Town not only became the staging post, before the rapid growth of Johannesburg and Durban it was the largest city of the country.

According to the statistic reports (as of 2007), Cape Town’s population is 3.5 million people. Cape Town occupies an area of 2 499 kilometers.

There is no reliable information on when the first human settlements appeared here. The earliest archeological finds (Peers cave, near Fish Hoek) date to approximately 12,000 years ago. Little is known of the early history of this region. First written documents date only to 1486, when the Cape of Good Hope was visited by Portuguese Bartolomeu Dias.

Vasco da Gama also rounded the Cape on November 20 of 1497; but regular contacts with Europeans started only after Riebeeck’s arrival in 1652. In the same year, under his supervision Cape Town was founded as a base for supplying ships of the Dutch East India Company with fresh victuals and meat. Riebeeck worked for the Dutch East India Company and had to provide for the ships stopping en route to Europe. The tip of South Africa was mainly inhabited at that time by the Hottentots; from the east the Khoisan people were pressing — a tribe, which belonged to the Bantu family.

At the initial stage, the city was growing slowly for the labour shortage. In order to recompense for it, the Dutch started importing slaves from Indonesia and Madagascar. Many of these slaves mingled with the colonial society; and descendants from mixed marriages of Indonesians, Europeans and local population formed several special ethnic groups that are called Coloured communities; notably, Cape Coloured communities are a special group among them.

In 1795, British troops captured the city after the Battle of Muizenberg. According to the peace treaty, signed after the war in 1803, Kaapstad was returned to the Dutch; but the same year the conflict resumed, and in 1806, after the Battle of Bloubergstrand, the British recaptured Kaap. According to the peace treaty of 1814, this region became an integral part of the British empire. The territory under the British authority grew, and Cape colony was formed with a capital in Cape Town.

The discovery of diamonds in West Griqualand and gold in Witwatersrand close to Johannesburg in 1869, led to the beginning of the Gold Rush and rapid growth of Johannesburg due to the influx of immigrants. Apart from that, tensions began between the Boer republics created during the Great Trek that experienced the influx of foreigners-outlanders and the British colonial administration. The conflict culminated in the Anglo-Boer War. After defeating the Boer states (the Orange Free State and Transvaal Republic) and establishing control over the mining of gold and diamonds, the British joined the Boer republics and Cape Colony with the British dominion of Natal to create the Union of South Africa. The Union was declared in 1910, and Cape Town became its legislative capital. It retained this function even after the Republic of South Africa was created in 1961.

In 1948, the National Party won the elections, which promised to introduce racial segregation known as apartheid. According to the law of Group Areas, multi-racial suburbs had to be either purged of “unlawful” residents or even demolished. In relation to this campaign, Cape Town’s District Six, demolished in 1965, became the most infamous example. Since this zone was announced a whites-only region, more than 60,000 black residents were forcibly removed. Under apartheid it was legally stipulated that the preference while hiring workers should be given to the Coloured instead of the Blacks in Cape Town.

On December 3 of 1967, in Cape Town’s Groote Schuur Hospital the world’s first successful heart transplant surgery was performed by professor Christiaan Barnard, who transplanted the heart of a lethally wounded 25-year old woman to a 55-year old patient.

Many leaders of anti-apartheid movement lived in Cape Town; some of them, including Nelson Mandela were later held in a prison on Robben Island 10 kilometers off Cape Town’s coast. On February 11 of 1990, a few hours after his release from prison, Mandela delivered his famous speech from the balcony of Cape Town’s city council. After the abolishing of apartheid in 1994, Cape Town had to face many problems, such as HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis and crime, including that related to drugs. At the same time, the city’s economy boomed, especially due to tourism and fast developing real estate market.

Cape Town’s center is located on the northern tip of the Cape Peninsula. Table Mountain makes a beautiful background for it, rising above sea level for over one thousand meters. It is surrounded by almost vertical cliffs such as Devil’s Peak or Lion’s Head. Sometimes a thin cloud is formed above the mountain, which is dubbed the “tablecloth.” The peninsula proper is a little mountainous range with 70 peaks over 300 meters high terminating at Cape Point. Many suburbs of Cape Town are situated on the large plain called the Cape Flats, which joins the peninsula to the mainland. The Cape Flats consists mainly of sandy geology and formerly it was a sand ridge, and Table Mountain was an island.

Cape Town is also famous for its tourist attractions, among which are the following:

Table Mountain, which is 1087 meters high; the symbol of Cape Town. Throughout many years its unique silhouette met seafarers from far away countries, who pressed on to the desired harbour of Cape Town to replenish their supplies of water and victuals;

The Victoria and Alfred Waterfront. What used to be obscure port harbours with dirty and miserable dock facilities has now turned into the favorite place of the city dwellers and tourists. Today, the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront is a huge entertainment and shopping center that includes over 200 shops, galleries, movie theaters, hotels, restaurants and pubs, as well as the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront’s Quay;

The Two Oceans Aquarium, the biggest one in the Southern Hemisphere. Behind a glass wall 11 meters high more than 300 representatives of Atlantic and Indian oceans live;

Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden was founded in 1913 on the eastern slope of Table Mountain to keep and develop the flora of South Africa and it is now acknowledged one of the seven top and most famous Botanical gardens in the world. The garden area occupies the territory of 528 hectares;

The Castle of Good Hope is the oldest building in South Africa. The construction was finished in 1679, when this edifice became the base of the Dutch East India Company, as well as the defensive fort for the settlers. In 1936, the fort was made into a museum and it is still a regional base for the South African military in the Western Cape;

South African National Gallery, one of the largest museums in South Africa.

This article uses the materials from the web resource: http://en.wikipedia.org

Leave a Comment

Яндекс.Метрика Индекс цитирования