Page 313 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - South Africa

GA UTENG , LIMPOPO AND MPUM ALANGA  311

GAUTENG AND SUN CITY

Johannesburg is an urban conglomerate that developed around
the rich gold mines of the Witwatersrand in Gauteng. To the north
lies sedate and elegant Pretoria, founded by the Voortrekkers
before the discovery of gold and today South Africa’s
administrative capital. In the northwest, the glittering Sun
City complex provides fast-paced entertainment, while the
neighbouring Pilanesberg reserve offers Big Five game-viewing.
The rocky Witwatersrand (“ridge of white holiday homes. The Magaliesberg
waters”) escarpment lies about 1,600 m mountain range is a nearby nature retreat
(5,250 ft) above sea level and stretches for whose lower slopes are popular for hiking.
80 km (50 miles) from west to east. After The ambitious Sun City development
the discovery of the main reef on the turned the most unpromising terrain in
Witwatersrand in 1886, gold fast became the former homeland of Bophuthatswana,
the basis of the national economy and now part of the North West Province, into
dictated the development of the then an opulent leisure resort. Subsequent
mostly rural Transvaal Boer republic. While expansion produced the exotic fantasy
Johannesburg was founded on gold and called The Palace of the Lost City, where
industry, Pretoria was founded as a capital tropical jungle now covers what once was
during the Voortrekker period of South overgrazed farmland, and computer-
Africa’s past, and is still today the home generated waves wash onto pristine, man-
of government departments and made beaches. Even those who do not
diplomatic missions. find the complex to their taste have to
Those who wish to escape the cities admire the effort and planning that went
do not have far to go. Northwest of into its creation. Adjoining Sun City is the
Johannesburg and Pretoria is the Pilanesberg Game Reserve, which was
Hartbeespoort Dam, where water sports created out of an extinct volcanic crater in
enthusiasts flock at weekends, and where 1979, and is today home to all the large
the shores are lined with resorts and animals visitors expect to see on safari.

In October, the streets of Pretoria are ablaze with lilac jacaranda blossoms
Doors of the Constitutional Court, Johannesburg, with carvings symbolizing the rights enshrined in the Constitution

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