Visit Cape Town

Vibrant Cape Color

Wandering amid the old and new districts alike, watching the flavorful comings and goings as you pause for espressos along the bustling Long Street, the architectural influences are as diverse as British colonial, Victorian, Gothic and Cape Dutch side by side with unique bursts of Cape heritage.
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Wandering amid the old and new districts alike, watching the flavorful comings and goings as you pause for espressos along the bustling Long Street, the architectural influences are as diverse as British colonial, Victorian, Gothic and Cape Dutch side by side with unique bursts of Cape heritage.
The Cape soil was originally inhabited by a group of nomadic hunter gatherers called the San, some of whom still survive in protected reservations to this day, acquiring sheep and cattle to form herding communities called the Khoikhoi. In 1488 Portuguese seafarer Bartholomew Dias rounded the Cape, naming it the Cape of Good Hope and paving the way for many a European ship to stock up with water and supplies on their way to trade with the East. But it wasn't until 1652 that Europeans actually settled in the area. The Dutch East India Trade Company was establishing a trade route with the East Indies and set up a refreshment station for sailors at the Cape. A few years later, in 1657, a number of men who were released from their contracts were granted land in the area. These 'Free Burghers' were the first Afrikaners (Dutch-descent) and they were joined by groups of French Huguenots and German immigrants that marked the start of the colonization of the Cape. The British took control of the colony in 1795 and between 1867 to 1897, diamonds and gold were discovered in South Africa. Industrialization brought many Africans from rural vastlands to the Cape. Concerns that they were encroaching on the city center marked the start of the government's policy of racial segregation, formalized into apartheid ('separateness') when the National party came into power in 1948. The party's increasingly Draconian laws throughout the 1950s, including regulating the movement of black South Africans by forcing them to carry special passes, led to a powerful resistance campaign pioneered by the African National Congress (ANC) and a young lawyer named Nelson Mandela. In 1961, the ANC was banned and a year later Mandela was captured and incarcerated at Robben Island prison for 18 years. Following the first democratic elections, Nelson Mandela was elected as the first black president of South Africa (1994). The 'Rainbow Nation' was born. - Hide