Cape Town

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

The earliest known remnants of human occupation in the region were found at Peers Cave in Fish Hoek in the late 1920s. Bartolomeu Dias, the first European to reach the area, arrived in 1488 and named it 'Cape of Storms'. It was later renamed by John II of Portugal as 'Cape of Good Hope'. In 1510, at the Battle of Salt River, the Portuguese admiral Francisco de Almeida and sixty-four of his men were killed by the Goringhaiqua. In 1652, Jan van Riebeeck and other employees of the United East India Company were sent to establish a way-station. Britain captured Cape Town in 1795, returned it in 1803, and captured it again in 1806. It was permanently ceded to the United Kingdom in the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814. Cape Town became the legislative capital of the Union of South Africa in 1910, and later of the Republic of South Africa.

In Their Own Story

The city's governance has shifted from 10 separate municipalities in 1902 to over 50 distinct authorities by 1994. In 1979, Bellville was upgraded to city status. The transition to democracy saw the dissolution of the Cape Metropolitan Council and six interim substructures on 5 December 2000, creating a single 'Unicity' that extended its northern boundary to include Philadelphia and Klipheuwel.

Reader's Guide

The city is known for its harbour, its natural setting in the Cape Floristic Region, and for landmarks such as Table Mountain and Cape Point. The Table Mountain National Park is within the city boundaries. Other nature reserves include Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, which contains 5 of South Africa's 6 biomes. Cape Town has been named the best city in the world numerous times, including by The New York Times in 2014, Time Out in 2025, the World Travel Awards in 2026, and The Telegraph for the past 8 years (2017 through 2025).

Did You Know?

• Cape Town has South Africa's highest household incomes, lowest rate of unemployment, highest level of infrastructure investment, strongest service delivery performance, largest tourism appeal, and most robust real estate
• The metropolitan area has a long coastline on the Atlantic Ocean, including a northern section in the West Beach region and the False Bay area in the south.
• The City Bowl area of Cape Town, which contains its central business district, is the oldest urban area in the Western Cape.