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.

Castle of Good Hope

Cape Town Central

This squat fortress is the oldest still-standing colonial building in South Africa. Built between 1665 and 1676 by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) to replace an earthen fort constructed in 1652 by Jan van Riebeeck, the Dutch commander who settled Cape Town. Its pentagonal plan, with a diamond-shaped bastion at each corner, is typical of the Old Netherlands defensive system adopted in the early 1600s. The design enabled covering fire for every portion of the castle. As an added protection, the whole fortification was surrounded by a moat—back in the day, the sea nearly washed up against its walls. The castle served as both the VOC headquarters and the official governor's residence and still houses the regional headquarters of the National Defence Force. Despite the bellicose origins of the castle, shots have never been fired from its ramparts, except ceremonially.

You can wander around on your own, or join one of the informative guided tours at no extra cost. There are three museums to explore, and you can witness the so-called "Key Ceremony" (10 am and noon, weekdays only) and see a small cannon being fired (10 am, 11 am, and noon, Monday–Saturday).

Military Sight
Castle St. at Darling St., Cape Town, 8000, South Africa
021-461–4673
www.castleofgoodhope.co.za
Sight Details
R50

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