The Best Sight in Cape Town, South Africa

Background Illustration for Sights

Cape Town has grown as a city in a way that few others in the world have. Take a good look at the street names. Strand and Waterkant streets (meaning "beach" and "waterside," respectively) are now far from the sea. However, when they were named, they were right on the beach. An enormous program of dumping rubble into the ocean extended the city by a good few square miles (thanks to the Dutch obsession with reclaiming land from the sea). Almost all the city on the seaward side of Strand and Waterkant is part of the reclaimed area of the city known as the Foreshore. If you look at old paintings of the city, you will see that originally waves lapped at the very walls of the castle, now more than half a mile from the ocean.

Norval Foundation

Tokai Fodor's Choice

This strikingly modern, well-structured space has a huge exhibition gallery, gigantic walls, and proper lighting, all of which make it a pleasure to visit and take in what are usually the best exhibitions you'll see in Cape Town. Curation is exceptional, with descriptive information panels and no expense spared to showcase the depth of an artist's work, or to bring innovative and eye-opening new work to the public's attention. Unlike Zeitz MOCAA where the focus is often on conceptual work lacking emotional gravitas, here you will feel the soul of the artists speaking to you. There is also a beautiful garden that showcases a permanent collection of phenomenal large-scale sculptures, plus there are beautiful views of the mountain, and a children's playground, a research library, and a destination restaurant.