31st May: Republic Day, South Africa

Republic day is celebrated today in South Africa. Here are some things you may not know about the home of Nelson Mandela:

1. It has three capital cities. Pretoria (executive), Cape Town (legislative), and Bloemfontein (judicial). None of these three is the largest city - that is Johannesburg.
2. It was the first country in Africa to host the FIFA World Cup, in 2010, and is the only country in the world to have hosted the Football, cricket and rugby world cups.
3. South Africa is home to several record-breaking features - the deepest mine, a Gold mine, the Western Deep Levels Mine 11,749 feet deep; the largest theme resort hotel in the world, The Palace of the Lost City resort hotel; the oldest Meteor scar in the world, the Vredefort Dome (a UNESCO World Heritage Site); the largest red brick building in the Southern Hemisphere (Pietermaritzburg's city hall); and the highest commercial bungi jump in the world (710 feet).
4. South Africa is home to the world's smallest succulent plants (less than 0.39 inches) and the largest (the baobab tree).
5. Table Mountain, in Cape Town, is probably one of the oldest mountains in the world. It is rich in plant life, with over 1,500 species of plants growing there - more than the entire United Kingdom. It's also believed to be one of the world's twelve energy centres, radiating magnetic, electric or spiritual energy.
6. It also has the only street in the world to have had two Nobel Prize winners living on it. Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu both lived on Vilakazi Street in Soweto.
7. The oldest remains of modern humans were found in Klasies River Cave in the Eastern Cape. They are well over 100,000 years old. It's not just people that might have originated here, but life itself - in eastern South Africa, scientists have found traces of blue-green algae dating back 3,500 million years - some of the earliest evidence of life on Earth.
8. It's a good place for booze, with the oldest Wine industry outside Europe and the longest wine route in the world. If Beer is your tipple, never fear, for South Africa is home to the largest brewing company in the world by volume, SABMiller. 50% of the beer they make is exported to China.
9. South Africa is the only country in the world that has voluntarily abandoned its nuclear weapons programme.
10. 90% of all the platinum metals on earth and around 41% of the world’s Gold comes from South Africa. It is also the country where the largest ever diamond, The Cullinan Diamond, found in 1905. It weighed 3,106.75 carats uncut, and it was cut into no less than 106 diamonds including the Great Star of Africa, weighing 530.2 carats, the Lesser Star of Africa, 317.40 carats. Where are they now? They are part of the British Crown jewels.