<style type="text/css"> .no-show { display: none; } .disable-fade-in{ opacity: 1 !important; transform: none !important; visibility: visible !important; } </style>
Skip to main content
Go to CIA.gov
South Africa

Photos

10 Photos
The southernmost tip of Africa is South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope. One of the most famous capes in maritime history, Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias became the first European to sail around it in 1488, naming the cape “Good Hope” for the many opportunities this first water route to Asia offered Europe. Cape Town, the legislative capital of South Africa, is located on the Cape Peninsula.
Table Mountain - a level plataeu about 3 km (2 mi) from side to side - overlooking some homes in Cape Town.
Cape Town waterfront. Pleasure boats, ferries, and cranes fill the harbor.
Tip of South Africa where the Atlantic and Indian Ocean meet.
African penguins- also called the black-footed penguin, Cape penguin, or jackass penguin (due to their mating call resembling a braying donkey)-are the only penguin species that live on the African continent, mainly along the coast of South Africa and Namibia. The species subsists on squid, southern African pilchards, horse mackerel, and anchovies and penguins can reach up to 60–68 cm (24–27 in) in length and weigh up to 3.7–4 kg (8–9 lbs). African penguins face threats of overfishing of their food supply, climate change threats to the marine ecosystem, pollution, and disease. Pictured are African penguins at the Boulders Penguin Colony in Table Mountain National Park.
A view of Cape Town from Table Mountain.
Robben Island located in Table Bay, Western Cape province, South Africa. The island, 13 sq km (5 sq mi) in area, is 8 km (5 mi) west of the mainland and 10 km (6 mi) north of Cape Town. After early efforts at settlement, the island became a Dutch and then a British penal colony. The island eventually housed a leper colony from 1846 to 1931 and an insane asylum. From the mid-1960s to 1991, Robben Island served as South Africa’s maximum-security prison incarcerating prisoners for political offenses with the most notable, Nelson Mandela, being jailed for 18 years before becoming president of South Africa. The last of the political prisoners were released in 1991, though the island continued serving as a medium-security prison for criminal offenders until 1996. In 1997, Robben Island became a museum and a national monument, receiving designation as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1999.
Nelson Mandela's cell where he was held captive for 18 years as a political prisoner.
Franschhoek (Afrikaans for "French Corner") is a small town in Western Cape Province and one of the oldest towns in the Republic of South Africa. Settlement by French Huguenot refugees began in 1688 and many of their original farms are today renowned wineries. The town, at the very heart of the South African wine industry, still retains much of its historic Dutch Cape-style architecture, including this much photographed Dutch Reformed Church.
Thabana Ntlenyana -- or "beautiful little mountain" in the Sesotho language -- is the highest mountain in southern Africa at 3,482 m (11,424 ft). It is also the highest peak in Maloti-Drakensberg Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001. The Park spans the border between Lesotho and South Africa and includes Sehlabathebe National Park (6,500 ha or 16,061 acres) in Lesotho and Khahlamba Drakensberg Park (242,813 ha or 600,000 acres) in South Africa. Maloti-Drakensberg Park is renowned for its spectacular natural landscape, varied wildlife, and rock paintings made by the San people over a 4,000-year period.
Usage
World Factbook Glyph

Factbook images and photos — obtained from a variety of sources — are in the public domain and are copyright free.

View Copyright Notice
Arrow Right Icon