While Pretoria, which lies a bit to the north from Johannesburg is a administrative center of South Africa, Johannesburg holds the reputation of being the country’s commercial center and also a financial capital. Not only in South Africa but also one of the most important financial centers in the world.
The main city center is pretty compact but public transport isn’t very well developed. Tourist should be aware that exploring city with bikes or on foot is not very safe. Stay in groups, try to use guided tours if possible, so you don’t get into any kind of troubles. Many tourist like to visit the town only with guided tours, while they stay at Kempton Park, on the middle of the way towards Pretoria.
Johannesburg lies on high altitude, over 1.700 meter above the sea level. There’s no wonder, why such big town, which today hosts over 1 million residents in the center of the town, and over 4 millions in surrounding metropolitan area, has been built in the mountains.
The reason for that of course come from the fact, that rich gold deposits has been found in the past around South African largest town and third largest by population in whole African continent, right after Kairo and Lagos. If you’re amazed with number of residents, another amazing number is 6 millions trees being planted in the city. Number is pretty extreme, pushing the city on the top of the list of the worlds most green cities.
If you have time to check the city attractions, then surely check the city central part around Stock Exchange Building. You can find nice MuseuMAfrica telling you a story about a city and it’s past development. Another interesting museum if SAB World of Beer – a beer museum of course. They produce an amazing number of over 150 different brands at this brewery and museum part is a tourist point where they can learn beer history, how beer is produced and on the end of the tour, they can even try it. But there are many many more interesting museums, like African National Museum of Military History or Apartheid Museum.
Johannesburg is full of history
Gandhi Square with his statue being on display is not far from Stock Exchange. In the vicinity there is over 200 meters tall Carlton Centre skyscraper and Standard Bank Art Gallery with some great exhibitions being on display for visitors. Few kilometers outside of the city, the Gold Reef City theme park is a great attraction. Ride a speedy train or visit old underground mine shaft, check how they extracted gold back in the history. Despite everything, this is only a partial insight of the city, there is no way you can ever imagine that in the vicinity of the city there are many mine shafts, some going almost 3 kilometers deep!
SLIKA
If you’re here on a business or pleasure trip, possibly the best options to have some more fun is to go outside of the city. Great resort around Hartbeersport Dam is an excellent choice or casino and golf resort of Palace of the Lost City in the Sun City maybe even better. Or best – check all of them.
Best Johannesburg attractions
Johannesburg Stock Exchange Building, Gandhi Square, Joubert Park, Constitution Hill, Market Theatre Complex, MuseuMAfrica, SAB World of Beer, University of the Witwatersrand, Gold Reef City theme park, Apartheid Museum, Hector Peterson Museum, James Hall Transport Museum, Madiba Freedom Museum, South African National Museum of Military History, Madiba Freedom Museum, Zoology Museum
