« SOUTH AFRICA • DISCOVER SOUTH AFRICA • Johannesburg
Destination Johannesburg
Johannesburg includes Soweto, which was a separate city from the late 1970s until the 1990s. Originally an acronym for 'SOuth-WEstern TOwnships', Soweto originated as a collection of settlements on the outskirts of Johannesburg populated mostly by native African workers in the gold-mining industry.
Discover Johannesburg at-a-glance
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» Apartheid Museum
The Apartheid Museum is a museum complex in Johannesburg, South Africa dedicated to illustrating apartheid and the 20th century history of South Africa. The structure pictured here is owned by Gold Reef - the Casino Company. The South African government created a process to grant casino licenses, and established an agency called the Gambling Board. As a part of any bid to build a casino in South Africa, developers are required to demonstrate how their casino would attract tourism and stimulate job growth …
» Architecture of Johannesburg
Johannesburg is the capital of the Gauteng Province, and South Africa's financial hub. Founded in 1886, the city is located in the Witwatersrand region, which has vast gold deposits. The town experienced rapid growth as the gold deposits were exploited, and is now South Africa's largest urban center. As a result, the Johannesburg area has a wide variety of architecture, from early Art Nouveau to post-modern buildings …
» Carlton Centre
The Carlton Centre is a skyscraper and shopping centre located in downtown Johannesburg, South Africa. At 223 metres, it has been the tallest office building in Africa for 41 years. The Carlton Centre has 50 floors. The foundations of the two buildings in the complex are 5 m in diameter and extend 15 m down to the bedrock, 35 m below street level. The building houses both offices and shops, and has over 46 per cent of the floor area below ground level …
» Central Business District
The Central Business District, commonly called Johannesburg CBD, is one of the main business centres of Johannesburg, South Africa. It is the most dense collection of skyscrapers in Africa, however due to white flight and urban blight, many of the buildings are unoccupied as tenants have left for more secure locations in the Northern Suburbs, in particular Sandton and Rosebank. There are significant movements to revive the area …
» Constitution Hill
The Constitution Hill precinct is located at 11 Kotze Street in Braamfontein, Johannesburg near the western end of the suburb of Hillbrow. Constitution Hill is the seat of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. The first court session in the new building at this location was held in February 2004. The hill was formerly the site of a fort which was later used as a prison. The Old Fort Prison complex is known as Number Four …
» Cradle of Humankind
The Cradle of Humankind is a World Heritage Site first named by UNESCO in 1999, about 50 kilometres northwest of Johannesburg, South Africa in the Gauteng province. This site currently occupies 47,000 hectares; it contains a complex of limestone caves, including the Sterkfontein Caves, where the 2.3-million year-old fossil Australopithecus africanus (nicknamed "Mrs. Ples") was found in 1947 by Dr. Robert Broom and John T. Robinson …
» FNB Stadium
First National Bank Stadium or simply FNB Stadium, also known as Soccer City and The Calabash, is a stadium located in Nasrec, bordering the Soweto area of Johannesburg, South Africa. It is located next to the South African Football Association headquarters (SAFA House) where both the FIFA offices and the Local Organising Committee for the 2010 FIFA World Cup were housed. Designed as the main association football stadium for the World Cup, the FNB Stadium became the largest stadium in Africa …
» Gold Reef City
Gold Reef City is a large amusement park in Johannesburg, South Africa. Located on an old gold mine, the park is themed around the gold rush on the Witwatersrand. Park staff wear period costumes of the 1880s, and the buildings on the park are designed to mimic the same period. There is a museum dedicated to gold mining on the grounds where it is possible to see a gold-containing ore vein and see how real gold is poured into barrels …
» Hector Pieterson Museum
The Hector Pieterson Museum is a large museum located in Orlando West, Soweto, South Africa, two blocks away from where Hector Pieterson was shot and killed. The museum is named in his honour. It became one of the first museums in Soweto when it opened in 16 June 2002. A companion museum nearby is Mandela House, the former home of Nelson Mandela and his family, which has been run as a museum since 1997 …
» Johannesburg Botanical Garden
The Johannesburg Botanical Garden is located in the suburb of Emmarentia in Johannesburg, South Africa. The gardens were established in 1964 as a large rose garden (becoming known locally as the "Rose Garden") and subsequently expanded to cover an area of around 125 hectares (1.25 km2). It is administered by Johannesburg City Parks. The Emmarentia Dam is situated immediately to the east of the garden and shares its extensive acreage …
» Lesedi Cultural Village
Lesedi Cultural Village is a tourist village which celebrates the cultural traditions of several different peoples of Southern Africa. It reproduces traditional dwellings and offers demonstrations of dances and other cultural activities. It is situated near Johannesburg, within the Cradle of Humankind, in Gauteng, South Africa …
» Mandela House
The Nelson Mandela National Museum, commonly referred to as Mandela House, is the house on Vilakazi Street, Orlando West, Soweto, South Africa, where Nelson Mandela lived from 1946 to 1962. It is located at number 8115, at the corner of Vilakazi and Ngakane streets, a short distance up the road from Tutu House, the home of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu. Mandela donated the house to the Soweto Heritage Trust (of which he was the founder), to be run as a museum …
» Marble Towers
The Marble Towers is a skyscraper in the Central Business District of Johannesburg, South Africa. It was built in 1973 and is 32 storeys tall. The building has an eight-storey parking garage attached to it. It has the biggest electronic sign in the Southern Hemisphere, measuring 44 metres by 32 metres by 12 metres[clarification needed]. It is made out of a mixture of concrete and marble. Its main use is for commercial offices. The building was originally known as 'Sanlam Centre' …
» MuseuMAfricA
MuseuMAfricA (formerly known as the Africana Museum) is an historical museum in Johannesburg, South Africa. The museum was established in 1933, when the Johannesburg Public Library bought a large quantity of African material culture and books from John Gaspard Gubbins. From the mid-1930s, the museum's scope widened to include all aspects of African cultural history and material culture …
» O. R. Tambo International Airport
O. R. Tambo International Airport (IATA: JNB, ICAO: FAOR) (ORTIA) is a major airport in Kempton Park, Ekurhuleni, Gauteng, South Africa, near the city of Johannesburg. It serves as the primary airport for domestic and international travel to/from South Africa and is Africa's busiest airport with a capacity to handle up to 28 million passengers annually.[4] The airport is the hub of South Africa's largest international and domestic carrier, South African Airways (SAA), and a number of smaller local airlines …
» Ponte City Apartments
Ponte City is a skyscraper in the Hillbrow neighbourhood of Johannesburg, South Africa. It was built in 1975 to a height of 173 m, making it the tallest residential skyscraper in Africa. The 54-story building is cylindrical, with an open center allowing additional light into the apartments. The center space is known as "the core" and rises above an uneven rock floor. When built, Ponte City was seen as an extremely desirable address due to its views over all of Johannesburg and its surroundings …
» Sentech Tower
Sentech Tower, also known as and originally called the Brixton Tower or Albert Hertzog Tower, respectively, is a 237 m-high (778 ft) South African concrete television tower. It is a well-known and easily identifiable landmark in the city, alongside its "architectural cousin", the Hillbrow Tower. The Sentech Tower's construction commenced in 1961, completing its year-long construction in 1962 …
» Soweto
Soweto is an urban area of the city of Johannesburg in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for South Western Townships. Formerly a separate municipality, it is now incorporated in the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality, Suburbs of Johannesburg. Soweto's population is predominantly black. All eleven of the country's official languages are spoken …
» Trust Bank Building
Trust Bank Building is a skyscraper in the Central Business District of Johannesburg, South Africa. It was built in 1970 to a height of 140 metres. The building is the former head office of Trust Bank of South Africa, and as such has one of the largest bank vaults in South Africa. The building was recently sold in February 2003 for Rand 6.4 million (USD $640,000), which may prompt the name to be changed to that of the new tenant …
» University of the Witwatersrand
The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, is a multi-campus South African public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University. The university has its roots in the mining industry, as do Johannesburg and the Witwatersrand in general. Founded in 1896 as the South African School of Mines in Kimberley, it is the third oldest South African university in continuous operation …
» Johannesburg Zoo
The Johannesburg Zoo is a 81-hectare (200-acre) zoo in Johannesburg, South Africa. Established in 1904, it has traditionally been owned and operated by the City of Johannesburg. However, it has recently been turned into a corporation and registered as a Section 21 non-profit organisation. The zoo is dedicated to the accommodation, enrichment, husbandry, and medical care of wild animals, and houses about 2000 individuals of 320 species …
« SOUTH AFRICA • DISCOVER SOUTH AFRICA • Johannesburg
