7 April: Cape Town

On this date in 1652 Dutchman Jan Van Riebeeck established a settlement in Cape Town, South Africa. 10 things you might not know about Cape Town:

1. Cape Town is the third most populous city in South Africa after Johannesburg and Durban with a population estimate in 2022 of 4,770,313. 43% of those people are under 25, and the average age is 29, making Cape Town one of the world’s youngest cities.

2. Its most famous landmark is Table Mountain, with an elevation of 1,084.6 m (3,558 ft). It has a level plateau approximately three kilometres (2 miles) from side to side, edged by steep cliffs. Table Mountain is home to more than 2,200 plant species which evolved when it was a small island cut off from the mainland by higher sea levels. There’s a cable car for those who don’t want to hike up. It’s also a popular spot for popping the question, with about two couples getting engaged up there every month.

3. Robben Island is just off the coast and was once the location of a prison. This prison’s most famous inmate was Nelson Mandela, who spent 18 years there. The island is now a museum.

4. Cape Town is home to the oldest building and the oldest garden in South Africa. The oldest building is the Castle of Good Hope, built between 1666 and 1679 by the Dutch East India company. The garden is Company’s Garden, originally a veg patch but now a green oasis in the centre of the city, home to many plants, some of which are centuries old. These include South Africa’s oldest cultivated Pear tree which was planted in 1652, or thenabouts.

5. South Africa’s only intact Windmill is also here. Mostert's Mill is in Mowbray. It was built in 1796 and was restored in 1935 and 1995.

6. A cannon is fired every day at noon. The gun is located on Signal Hill. While Cape Town isn’t the only city in the world to have a tradition of firing a cannon at midday, it’s the oldest, having started in 1806. The reason may have been as a way for ships at sea to check their marine chronometers. Ships a long way out would do so by observing the puff of smoke rather than the sound because sound would take longer to reach them. There’s a back up cannon, and there has only been one occasion, in 2005, that both guns failed to fire. On another occasion it went off at 10.30 because a Spider got into the timing mechanism. Apart from that, it has been pretty reliable for 200 years. Since 2013, the Noon Gun has had its own Twitter account. “BANG!” is tweeted at 12 o’clock every day (except Sundays and public holidays).

7. The world’s first successful Heart transplant took place in Cape Town in 1967. Louis Washkansky received a new heart at Groote Schuur Hospital, but although the transplant was a success, Washkansky died from pneumonia 18 days later.

8. It’s nicknamed the Mother City. This might be because it was one of the first European settlements in Africa, or it might be because in 1930, a local newspaper referred to it as a ‘metropolis’, derived from the Greek words ‘metros’ (mother) and ‘polis’ (city) and the public adopted it as a nickname.

9. Cape Town was the first city outside of Europe to see its beaches certified as Blue Flag, meaning they meet high environmental and quality standards.

10. Cape Town has nineteen active sister city agreements. Its sister cities include: Atlanta, Miami, Los Angeles and Houston, United States; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Munich, Germany; Rio de Janiero, Brazil and Wuhan, China.