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Johannesburg Travel Guide
The city of Johannesburg is growing almost as rapidly as its people talk, and you will notice the rapidity of that speech as soon as you converse with a local. Johannesburg was, in fact, born as a mining camp with a sense of urgency following George Harrison's discovery of gold in 1886. The haste with which the city grew is still visible in the maze of one-way streets which criss-cross its central area. Gold dumps, some of them nearly 90 meters (300 feet) high, are still visible like a range of Magaliesburg Mountains foothills skirting the edges of the city on an east to west line.
But the ancestors of human beings were living in the Johannesburg area for millions of years before the discovery of gold brought the mass migration which built the city. The World Heritage site "Cradle of Humankind," Maropeng Centre, less than 50 km (22 miles) from downtown, where you can view an ongoing archaeological excavation or take an underground boat ride which travels back in time to the origins of the Earth itself. At Maropeng's sister site, the Sterkfontein Caves, the 3.5 million year old hominid remains have been discovered.
Combine a visit to the Cradle of Humankind with a look at the wild side of South African life, by spending some time in the 1400 hectare (3500 acres) Kromdraai Conservatory Rhino and Lion Game Park. With a bit of luck, you'll see lions, cheetahs, crocodiles, and perhaps even a whit rhino. If you're a bird fancier, this is the place for you!
You won't really understand Johannesburg, however, unless you take the time to understand apartheid by visiting the Apartheid Museum and taking a tour of Soweto, or the South Western Townships, where the 1976 student uprising finally brought the country's racial tensions to a head. Soweto was established in 1904 when an outbreak of bubonic plague in the city's central mining camps forced many of the blackmigrant workers to move, but after that blacks were relocated to Soweto and the surrounding towns by force. Both Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu lived in Soweto.
Mandela himself, in 2001, presided over the opening of the Apartheid Museum, which provides a grippingly detailed history of apartheid, the birth of the African National Congress, and the suppression of protests between the 1970s and 1994, when Mandela was elected the President of South Africa. Its most moving exhibit is a room in which each of the 121 individuals executed by hanging for their resistance to apartheid is represented by a noose suspended from the ceiling.
Constitution Museum, opened in 2004, is located at the site of Johannesburg's most notorious prison complex, in which black prisoners were incarcerated by the thousands for simple infractions like not carrying their pass books. South Africa's new Constitutional Court building, partially constructed with bricks from some parts of demolished prison, is also located on this site. Most of the prison, however, has been left intact and is a testament to the horrific conditions in which the victims of apartheid were kept.
For a glimpse of South African life before apartheid, visit the Lesedi Cultural Village about an hour north of Johannesburg. This attraction is actually a collection of bush villages, where the Zulu, Botho, Pedi, and other indigenous peoples share their cultural traditions. You can join them in a meal or even spend an entire night!
South Africa is one of the most backpacker friendly nations in the world, with its Baz Busses available to transport you to over two hundred different destinations. Just an hour west of Johannesburg, the Magaliesburg Mountains offer plenty of backpacking adventures around Hartbeespoort Dam and the Magaliesburg cliffs, or river rafting along the Crocodile River. The mountains are also home to the Elephant Sanctuary, where six African elephants share their bush territory with (among others) impala, baboons, porcupine, leopards, and hundreds of bird species.
When you're ready for some Johannesburg nightlife, there will be plenty of it ready for you! The only precaution is that you should take a guide along if you want to explore the night spots of Soweto. You'll find plenty of clubs along Seventh Street in the city's Melville district. For more upscale after-hours action the Norwood and Orange Grove in the north of the city are favorite haunts. The Radium Beer Hall in Orange Grove has a bar which was once used in the Ferreirastown Hotel during Johannesburg's mining boom.
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