20 AMAZING FACTS ABOUT SOUTH AFRICA

20 interesting facts about South Africa




  • Last month we gave you 20 interesting facts about the land down under. This month, we feature South Africa. You might know already that South Africa has 11 official languages and was the recent host of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, but here are 20 lesser known facts about this friendly and fascination country.

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  1. South Africa is now the only country in the world to have hosted the Soccer, Cricket and Rugby World Cup!
  2. Table Mountain in Cape Town is believed to be one of the oldest mountains in the world and one of the planet’s 12 main energy centres, radiating magnetic, electric or spiritual energy.
  3. The Cape Floral Kingdom is one of the world’s six floral kingdoms – and the only one which is wholly contained within a single country.
  4. Some countries have deserts; some have subtropical forests, right? South Africa has: deserts, wetlands, grasslands, bush, subtropical forests, mountains and escarpments.
  5. South Africa’s drinking water is rated 3rd best in the world for being “safe and ready to drink”.
  6. Water is not all there is to drink in this thirsty country! South Africa’s Cape Winelands have around 560 wineries and 4 400 primary producers. Included in the Cape Winelands region is Route 62, considered the longest wine route in the world. That alone is good reason to visit South Africa if you haven’t yet been!
  7. What about beer? South African brewery SABMiller ranks – by volume – as the largest brewing company in the world. Saffers love their beer…but the real reason the brewery is so big? SABMiller also supplies up to 50% of China’s beer.
  8. South Africa is the only country in the entire world that has voluntarily abandoned its nuclear weapons programme.
  9. The world’s largest themed resort hotel in the world – The Palace of the Lost City – is found in South Africa. Surrounding the Palace is a 25 hectare manmade botanical jungle with almost 2 million plants, trees and shrubs.
  10. South Africa is extremely rich in mining and minerals and considered the world’s leader with nearly 90% of all the platinum metals on earth and around 41% of all the world’s Gold!
  11. South Africa is home to the oldest meteor scar in the world – the Vredefort Dome in a town called Parys. The site is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
  12. The South African Rovos Rail is considered the most luxurious train in the world.
  13. South Africa is home to the highest commercial bungi jump in the world at 710 feet.
  14. General Motors South Africa is the only place outside of the USA to build the Hummer H3!
  15. Despite the country’s status as a democratic republic, the Province of KwaZulu-Natal has a monarchy, specially provided for by the Constitution. Goodwill Zwelithini kaBhekuzulu is the King of the Zulu Nation, has 27 kids and 6 wives and lives, literally, like a King!
  16. There are more than 2000 shipwrecks off the South African coast, most dating back at least 500 years.
  17. The oldest remains of modern humans were found in South Africa and are well over 160,000 years old.
  18. The Karoo region in the Western Cape is home to some of the best fossils of early dinosaurs. In fact, it is estimated that some 80% of the mammalian fossils found to date were found in the Karoo.
  19. SA has three capital cities: Pretoria is the Executive Capital, Cape Town the Legislative Capital and Bloemfontein the judicial Capital.
  20. Can you think of any other place in the world where two Nobel Peace Prize winners lived on the same street? Both Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu had houses on Vilakazi Street in Soweto

SEVEN (7) WONDERS OF SOUTH AFRICA


7 Wonders of Republic of South Africa


7 Wonders of South Africa

The Drakensberg

It runs from Dordrecht in the Eastern Cape all the way through to Tzaneen in Mpumalanga, but most of the 200 km range falls in KwaZulu-Natal. To the Voortrekkers, it resembled a chain of angry, unyielding dragons. To the Zulu nation, it is uKhahlamba, the Barrier of Spears. Mafadi Peak on the Lesotho border, previously believed to be 3450 m high, has been definitively measured by the Mountain Club of South Africa at 3451m. Either way, it's the highest mountain in the land.

Tsitsikamma Forest

Tsitsikamma Forest - magical, opulent forest of ancient Yellowwood and Stinkwood is home to such rarities as the Cape clawless otter. Park is an 80-kilometer long coastal strip situated along the Garden Route between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth. The heartland of the park stretches some 5 km to sea, protecting a wonderland of inter-tidal life, reef and deep-sea fish. Dolphins frolic in the breakers, surfing and playing for the sheer joy of life, and the gentle giant of the ocean, the southern right whale visits here, coming inshore to breed
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The Blyde River Canyon

Situated about 25km north of Pilgrim's Rest in Mpumalanga. Stretching for 25km, featuring towering cliffs, terrifying rapids, and steamy tracks of subtropical jungle, the world's largest green canyon offer views to take your breath away.

The Cradle of Humankind

Rich in fossils, riddled with caves, it's one of the world's most significant halfway stations on the road to our evolution as a species. The near-perfect skull of Mrs Ples, the area's most famous pre-human relic, is now believed to be the skull of Mr Ples. These sites have produced abundant scientific information on the evolution of the human being over the past 3.5 million years, his way of life, and the animals with which he lived and on which he fed. The landscape also preserves many features of that prehistoric period.
The Cradle of Humankind is a World Heritage Site which was chosen for the rich diversity of fossils found in the area. Fossils in the area have provided us with more clues to our earliest human ancestors The site covers an area of 47 000 hectares between Hekpoort, Broederstroom and Lanseria Most of the site is in Gauteng with bits that extend into the North West Province (Sterkfontein Caves) There are currently over 200 caves and 13 fossil sites.
The site is being upgraded to accommodate disabled tourists and international groups and school learners Scientists have discovered that Australopithecus africanus was present in Cradle from about 4-2 million years ago These hominids (upright walking "apes"), were human ancestors Homo ergaster, present around one million years ago is even more likely to be a direct ancestor than Australopithecus having a very close resemblance to modern man (Homo sapiens).
There are a wide range of activities offered, the best known being tours of the caves and field trips to fossil excavation sites The area was declared a WHS because it contains a vast treasure chest of fossilised remains of past life forms, particularly of hominids Due to its new status, the whole area including the caves and the fossils sites are protected

The Karoo National Park

The Great Karoo is a vast and unforgiving landscape of which the Karoo National Park is but a small portion. Being the largest ecosystem in South Africa, the Karoo is home to a fascinating diversity of life, all having adapted to survive in these harsh conditions. Karoo National Park is dominated by the lofty Nuweveld mountains and rolling plains, where many species that originally occurred here now occupy their former ranges. The Karoo it's the middle of nowhere, but there's nowhere like it on earth.

Cape Point

It's the meeting-point of two mighty oceans and the spot where Africa ends or begins, depending on your perspective. You can breathe the freshest air in the world here, as it blows in straight from the Antarctic. Is about an hour's drive from the centre of Cape Town. Head south-west until you just can't head south-west anymore.

Table Mountain

You can't really miss it. Its 1 086 m above sea level at its highest point, and is visible from 200km out at sea. The top part of the mountain is made up of rocks that were deposited by an ancient glacier hundreds of millions of years ago. From Table Mountain a 50-km range reaches southward to Cape Point, forming the backbone of the Cape Peninsula. This Mountain chain is botanist's paradise, with roughly 2 250 plant species, some of which are found nowhere else in the world. There is even a patch of land, about the size of the soccer field and known only to a handful of lepidopterists, on which the world's only colony of certain species of butterfly exists