Famous landmarks in South Africa

South Africa is the country at the southern tip of Africa, where the Atlantic and Indian oceans meet. It borders Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Eswatini, and it completely surrounds the small mountain kingdom of Lesotho. Unusually, it has three capital cities: Pretoria, Cape Town and Bloemfontein.

South Africa is famous for its wildlife safaris, dramatic coastlines, gold and diamonds, and for Nelson Mandela. On the globe you can find Table Mountain, Robben Island, the Castle of Good Hope, the Union Buildings, the Voortrekker Monument, Mapungubwe Hill, the Three Rondavels and Johannesburg towers, plus ostriches, meerkats, white rhinos, African penguins and ground hornbills.

Geography and nature

Much of South Africa is a high plateau, edged by the Great Escarpment and the tall Drakensberg mountains in the east. Cape Town sits below flat-topped Table Mountain, and the Cape is home to fynbos, a shrubland with thousands of plant species found nowhere else. The Kalahari reaches into the dry north-west. Kruger National Park is one of Africa's biggest wildlife reserves, home to lions, leopards, elephants, buffalo and rhinos. Blyde River Canyon is one of the largest canyons in the world, and penguins waddle on beaches near Cape Town.

People, languages and culture

South Africa is called the 'Rainbow Nation' because of its many peoples and cultures. It has twelve official languages, including isiZulu, isiXhosa, Afrikaans, English, Sesotho and South African Sign Language; isiXhosa has clicking sounds. Most people are Christian. Families love a braai, a barbecue, and dishes such as bobotie and dried meat called biltong. Rugby, football and cricket are very popular, and the Springboks have won the Rugby World Cup several times. Music styles include kwaito, amapiano and choral singing.

History in a nutshell

San and Khoikhoi peoples lived here for many thousands of years, and Bantu-speaking farmers arrived later; around 1220 the kingdom of Mapungubwe was a rich trading centre. Dutch settlers founded a colony at the Cape in 1652, and Britain later took over. Gold discovered in 1886 led to the founding of Johannesburg. From 1948 a system called apartheid kept people apart by race and denied most citizens their rights. After a long struggle, Nelson Mandela, imprisoned for 27 years, was freed, and in 1994 he became president after the first elections open to all.