Cape Town

Cape Town is the most beautiful city in South Africa, which is both familiar and unfamiliar to our people. It is familiar insofar as each of us at least once in our lives sang along in the company: "In the Cape Town port, with a hole in the board ...". And unfamiliar because even with the beginning of Russian tourism in South Africa, not everyone is drawn so far. As the name implies, Cape Town is located near the cape, which is considered the extreme southern point of the mainland. Since the time of Vasco da Gama, every navigator who has rounded the Cape of Good Hope has considered it his duty to celebrate this achievement on the shore. Once upon a time, our sailors were regular guests here - this is partly why the city has now become a sister city of St. Petersburg.

Cape Town is perhaps one of the most beautiful cities on the African continent. Its appearance is largely determined by its geographical location: the city is mostly located in the Table Bay of the Atlantic Ocean. The picturesque bay with views of Table Mountain and Lion's Head attracts a huge number of tourists from all over the world all year round.

Additional emphasis was placed on the city in late 2013 when Cape Town was declared World Design Capital for 2014.

Roughly around the same time period, The New York Times named Cape Town nothing less than the best city to visit in the world.

The city was also highly rated in the TripAdvisor’s 2014 Travelers’ Choice awards top list of the best travel and leisure destinations, based on traveler reviews. In this list, he took 2nd place among all African cities (after Marrakech).

View of the city from the mountain peak Lion's Head

Cape Town, as the main city of the Western Cape of South Africa, is the administrative center of this region, as well as the legislative capital of the country. It is here that the Parliament of South Africa is located, which in itself is an example of architectural art and is of considerable interest to tourists visiting the city.

With a population of 3.7 million people, Cape Town ranks second in South Africa in this indicator, second only to the main agglomeration of the country, Johannesburg.

In percentage terms, according to the Census 2011 Municipal report - Western Cape, the population of the city is distributed as follows: the dominant category is the so-called colored people, that is, people who were born as a result of various variants of mixing among themselves Asians, whites and blacks (43.2%); followed by blacks or, as they are called in the municipal report and in various local directories, black Africans (Black African), there are 39.4% of them in the city; the white population closes the top three with 16%; Indians and other Asians consistently make up 1.4% of the total population of the city.

Moreover, if you look at the statistics for the period from 1996 to 2011, when 3 population censuses were held (in 1996, 2001 and 2011), you can find a very consistent trend towards an increase in the growth of the black population, both in Cape Town and throughout the Western Cape of South Africa. Nevertheless, to this day, Cape Town remains one of the few cities where such a population is not predominant. The national average is about 79%.

The people of the region speak mainly English, as well as the local languages Afrikaans and Xhosa.

Table Mountain National Park covers an area of 22,000 hectares and contains a total of more plant species than all of the British Isles combined or, for example, New Zealand.

Right at the foot of Table Mountain lies one of the most beautiful botanical gardens in the world, the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden.

Despite the fact that the largest number of millionaires in South Africa (48%) live in Johannesburg, the largest number of luxury mansions, worth more than 20 million rand, is located in Cape Town. Especially in this regard, its elite area on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean Camps Bay stands out, where there are 155 such villas.

Cape Town has many interesting suburbs. In one of them, Bloubergstrand, located on the West Coast 25 kilometers from the city center, there is a beach of the same name (Blouberg Beach), which attracts a large number of tourists for surfing and kitesurfing, but primarily for contemplating one one of the most famous views of Table Mountain.

If you take a boat and go along Table Bay to the west from the coast of Bluebergstrand, then after 6.9 kilometers you can moor at the iconic Robben Island for the country. Today, this island is an open-air museum, but it once housed a notorious prison, one of whose most famous prisoners was the legendary Nelson Mandela.

Beach holidays in the vicinity of Cape Town are provided by a fairly large number of picturesque and well-groomed beaches. This city will forever remain in the heart ❤️