5 Best Sights in Cape Town, South Africa

The foundation highlights the life and accomplishments of South Africa’s famous cleric and his equally impressive wife, Leah, while continuing their message of courage, freedom, and equality. The exhibits are well-organized and present personal objects, including a set of Tutu's purple vestments, photos, quotes, and informative videos in an accessible way. The Truth to Power: Desmond Tutu & the Churches exhibit explores the multifaceted life of the cleric, humanitarian, activist, and Nobel Peace winner, while the 90 Voices HERstory exhibit celebrates the legacy and contributions of Mrs. Leah Tutu with the stories of 90 women who were all part of South Africa’s struggle for freedom. Programs and lectures are ongoing.

This small museum attached to the Shimansky boutique tells the fascinating history of the little stones that played such a big role in South Africa's history. The tour (25–40 minutes) covers a time line of 3 billion years, mostly focusing on how the local industry developed in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and ending in a showroom where polishers are busy "brillianteering" stones that are unsurprisingly available for purchase.

Housed in the Buitenkant Methodist Church, this small museum preserves the memory of one of Cape Town's most vibrant multicultural neighborhoods and of the district's destruction in one of the cruelest acts of the apartheid-era Nationalist government. District Six was proclaimed a white area in 1966, and existing residents were evicted from their homes, which were razed to make way for a white suburb. The people were forced to resettle in bleak outlying areas on the Cape Flats, and by the 1970s all the buildings here, except churches and mosques, had been demolished. Huge controversy accompanied the proposed redevelopment of the area, and while there have been stop-start ventures in recent years, so far only a small housing component, Zonnebloem, and the campus of the Cape Technikon have been built, leaving much of the ground still bare—a grim reminder of the past. The museum consists of street signs, photographs, life stories of the people who lived there, and a huge map, where former residents can identify the sites of their homes and record their names. This map is being used to help sort out land claims. You can arrange in advance for a two-hour walking tour of the district with a former resident for a nominal fee.

Built in 1679 by the Dutch East India Company to house the enslaved people they'd brought to the Cape for labor, it also housed the supreme court from 1815 to 1914. The lodge now holds a museum with a fascinating and sobering account of slavery in the Cape, as well as excellent and evocative temporary exhibits that generally examine more contemporary views on apartheid and human rights. The somewhat randomly curated upper galleries house exhibits and artifacts from the various groups populating the Cape, as well as ceramics and an Egyptology collection

Housed in the Old Synagogue—South Africa's first synagogue, built in 1863—this museum sits in the same complex as the Cape Town Holocaust & Genocide Centre and spans 150 years of South African Jewry, tracing the history of local Jewish culture back to Eastern Europe and elsewhere. The themes of Memories (immigrant experiences), Reality (integration into South Africa), and Dreams (visions for the future) are conveyed with high-tech multimedia and interactive displays, models, and artifacts. The complex also includes the Great Synagogue (built in 1905), an active place of worship, a temporary gallery for changing exhibits, an auditorium, and a museum restaurant and shop. The museum also exhibits the extraordinary Isaac Kaplan collection of Japanese netsuke (miniature ceremonial carvings), considered among the world's finest. Photo ID required for entry.