Cities And Urban Areas Codexery

Pretoria

Executive capital of South Africa and major diplomatic hub.

Last updated

Where it is

Street map of the area around Pretoria; the red dot marks 25°44′46″S 28°11′17″E
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors

Coordinates: 25°44′46″S 28°11′17″E (-25.7460, 28.1880) · Open in OpenStreetMap

Coordinates and connected clubs: the infobox of Wikipedia: Pretoria (CC BY-SA 4.0). Map: drawn by Codexery from OpenStreetMap tiles.

The city is named after Voortrekker leader Andries Pretorius and is sometimes called the "Jacaranda City" due to its many jacaranda trees.[1] Its population ranges from 700,000 to 2.95 million, depending on the area considered.[2] South Africa's executive branch and all foreign embassies are located in Pretoria, which functions as the country's executive capital.[3][4]

Geography and history

Pretoria lies about 56 km north-northeast of Johannesburg, in a transitional belt between the Highveld plateau and the lower Bushveld.[5] It sits at an altitude of about 1,339 m in a sheltered, fertile valley surrounded by the Magaliesberg hills.[5] The average annual temperature is 18.7 °C, kept high by the valley's heat-trap effect.[6] Pretoria achieved official city status on 14 October 1931.[7][8]

Pretoria was the place where apartheid was actually administered from.[7] In 1910, the Union of South Africa was created through the unification of the Cape Colony, Natal Colony, the ZAR (a Boer Republic), and the Orange River Colony (another Boer Republic).[8] From 1910 until 1994, Pretoria additionally served as the capital city for the Transvaal province.[8]

What the cited sources add

The South African History Online account states that Pretoria became the administrative capital of the Union of South Africa in 1910, formed by merging four colonies.[7] The same source notes that Pretoria retained that position when the Union became a republic in 1961.[7] It also records that Pretoria was the administrative center from which apartheid was run.[7]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Pretoria" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Raper, "Dictionary of Southern African Place Names", Internet Archive, 1987, p. 373; "10 SA city nicknames, and why they're called that", News24, 4 June 2015; "South Africa's provinces: Gauteng" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Pretoria" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Population, according to the 2001 Census, of the Pretoria "main place" .; Population, according to the 2007 Community Survey , of the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality after the 2011 annexation of the Metsweding District Munic (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Pretoria" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: ; "Pretoria national administrative capital, South Africa", Encyclopedia Britannica; "Pretoria national administrative capital, South Africa", Encyclopedia Britannica; "South Africa at a glance", South African Government (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Pretoria" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "International Matters – University of Pretoria", www.up.ac.za, 9 September 2023 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Pretoria" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Tools, "Elevation Finder" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Pretoria" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: GHCN climate data, 30-year climate average 1979–2008, Goddard Institute of Space Studies (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. South African History Online, , (2011). facts only, no text reused. sahistory.org.za
  8. Wikipedia, "Pretoria" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: South African History Online, , (2011); Roman Adrian Cybriwsky, Capital Cities around the World: An Encyclopedia of Geography, History, and Culture, ABC-CLIO, USA, 2013, p. 54 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Pretoria (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

Also in the Codexery

Pretoria · Capital Cities Of Africa

More in Cities And Urban Areas

YaoundéWindhoekTunisTripoli, LibyaTifaritiRabatPraiaPorto-NovoPort LouisNairobiMaseruLomé

Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

Spotted an error? Know more?

Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced

Comments

Loading…
Open in the interactive codex →