4 Best Sights in Johannesburg, South Africa

The Apartheid Museum, in Ormonde, takes you on a journey through South African apartheid history—from the entrance, where you pass through a turnstile according to your assigned skin color (Black or white), to the myriad historical, brutally honest, and sometimes shocking photographs, video displays, films, documents, and other exhibits. It's an emotional, multilayered journey. As you walk chronologically through the apartheid years and eventually reach the country's first steps to freedom, with democratic elections in 1994, you experience a taste of the pain and suffering with which so many South Africans had to live. A room with 121 ropes with hangman's knots hanging from the ceiling—one rope for each political prisoner executed in the apartheid era—is especially chilling.

Opened in 2013, the 129-acre Freedom Park is a cultural heritage site dedicated to the struggle for freedom and human rights, while chronicling Africa’s 3.6-billion-year-old history, from the dawn of humanity to South Africa’s post-apartheid present. At Salvokop, a prominent hill that welcomes you to Pretoria on the highway from Johannesburg, and within view of the Voortrekker Monument, the site comprises a memorial, interactive museum containing national archives, and a garden of remembrance. The park was launched in 2002 by then-President Thabo Mbeki, who said, "We dedicate this day to all the heroes and heroines in this country and the rest of the world who sacrificed in many ways and surrendered their lives so that we could be free." It is also a spiritual resting place that honors those who fought for and shaped the country’s liberation struggle. If you have limited time, do the 360-degree virtual tour via the website.

The anti-apartheid activist and former president lived in this small house for 15 years until his arrest in 1961 (and for 11 days after his release), with his first wife, Evelyn Ntoko Mase, and then second wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. The redbrick house, which was burnt to the ground in 1988 and was rebuilt with the help of the community, holds heritage status today and has been converted into a museum that contains Mandela's memorabilia and weaves a story that helps visitors better understand his daily struggles as a lifelong freedom fighter. The museum was renovated in 2008 to mark his 90th birthday. If you're unable to visit the museum, you can do a free virtual tour via the website, which includes a number of informative videos.

This famous national heritage site is regarded as a symbol of Afrikaner nationalism and independence. Completed in 1949, the monument honors the Voortrekkers, who rejected colonial rule and trekked into the hinterland to found their own nation. The Hall of Heroes traces in its marble frieze their momentous Great Trek, culminating in the Battle of Blood River (December 16, 1838), when a small force of Boers defeated a large Zulu army without losing a single life. The Voortrekkers considered this victory a covenant with God. An adjoining museum displays scenes and artifacts of daily Voortrekker life, as well as the Voortrekker Tapestries, 15 pictorial weavings that trace the historical high points of the Great Trek. The monument is in a nature reserve, which has a picnic area. You can dine in the restaurant and tea garden if you don't like to rough it. Also on-site is Fort Schanskop, the best preserved of four area forts commissioned by President Paul Kruger in about 1897. The fort houses a South African (Anglo-Boer) War museum and gift shop.