The first settlement at Cape Town was established in April 1652 by Jan van Riebeeck’s on behalf of the Dutch East Indies Trading Company as a supply station for ships traveling farther east to Asia. Most visitors to Cape Town enjoy visiting Table Mountain. This is the only place in the world where you can simultaneously view two oceans at the same time.

From the first time the very first person ever laid eyes on this majestic and beautiful mountain, Table Mountain has held an almost hypnotic appeal to all who see it. This is an extremely difficult mountain to scale and for hundreds of years only a very small group of people could say that they had been successful. In the late 1870′s, several prominent residents of Cape Towns proposed the building of a railway up to the top.

Plans were soon implemented but the beginning to the Anglo-Boer war put a stop to the further development of the project until 1912.Then, the Cape Town City Council hired an engineer to make suggestions on how to arrange for transportation to the top of Table Mountain. He proposed a railway line through the Platteklip gorge would be the most suitable option. Despite the enormous proposed costs of this railway line, it was approved by the residents of Cape Town. The project was, however, delayed once again by the outbreak of World War I.

Following the end of WWI, the railway plan was reopened but this time it was proposed to develop a cable car up the side of the mountain. The idea of having a relatively easy way to scale the mountain became very popular in Cape Town and work soon began.

Since the cable car first opened in 1925, some 16 million people have ridden in it to the top of Table Mountain. Some of the famous visitors to Table Mountain include Oprah Winfrey, Margaret Thatcher, Queen Elizabeth II and Sting.

A visit to Table Mountain is a unique experience. Where else on earth can you have a 360 degree view of two oceans at the same time? Nowhere else on earth! The panoramic vistas spread out before you in a seemingly never-ending sweep to the horizon. You can hear the call of hundreds of sea birds as you stand gazing at the scene below you with the wind blowing gently through you hair. The true magic of South Arica will come home to you in that moment as you feel the unbelievably powerful majesty of this great continent unfold before you.

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Cape Town: The Creative Capital