South Africa has a rich social and cultural history reaching back to some of the earliest human settlements in the world. South Africa also has a rich architectural heritage, to which all the cultural groups in the country have contributed. More than 4 000 buildings, sites and other objects (including trees) have been declared national monuments.
South Africa can justifiably be called the museum country of Africa, with the earliest of its museums dating back to the first half of the 19th century with more than 300 of Africa's approximately 1 000 museums.
South Africa's museums range from geology, history, the biological sciences and the arts, to mining, agriculture, forestry and many other disciplines.
You can reflect South Africa's heritage in a range of places - from elegant 18th century homes to caves in majestic mountain ranges, cultural villages in rural settings to state-of-the-art buildings in major cities.
Visitors can find exhibits both conventional and eccentric, on every conceivable topic from beer to beadwork, from fashion to food.
New additions are those reflecting the apartheid era, and commemorating those who fought and died in the cause of establishing a democratic South Africa.
South Africa's largest museums are situated in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town, Durban, Pietermaritzburg and Bloemfontein.
- Natal Museum, Pietermaritzburg
- National Museum, Bloemfontein
- McGregor Museum, Kimberley
- East London Museum
- South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity, Grahamstown
- Port Elizabeth Museum
- Durban Museum of Natural History.
South Africa's best-known cultural-history collections are housed in the Iziko Museums and the Northern Flagship Institution, as well as in the following:
- National Museum, Bloemfontein
- Natal Museum, Pietermaritzburg
- Durban Local History Museum
- Museum Africa, Johannesburg.
Among South Africa's art museums are the following:
- South African National Gallery, Cape Town
- Johannesburg Art Gallery
- Pretoria Art Museum
- William Humphreys Art Gallery, Kimberley.
The South African Cultural History Museum in Cape Town houses the oldest cultural history collection in the country.
The South African Museum (Cape Town) showcases the natural history of South Africa, as well as relics of the early human inhabitants of the subcontinent. The huge Whale Hall houses possibly the most impressive of all its exhibitions. This is the only collection in South Africa with a planetarium attached to it.
The Transvaal Museum in Pretoria houses the skull of Mr Ples (until recently believed to Mrs Ples), a 2,5-million-year-old hominid fossil, and depicts the origin and development of life in South Africa, from the most primitive unicellular form of life to the emergence of mammals and the first human beings. It has a collection of early human fossils.
The Tswaing Meteorite Crater is situated to the north-west of Pretoria. It supports the Presidential Imperatives by combining a museum with a cultural-development initiative.
Mining is best represented by the De Beers Museum at the Big Hole in Kimberley, where visitors can view the biggest hole ever made by man with pick and shovel. It includes an open-air museum, which houses many buildings dating back to the era of the diamond diggings.
Another of South Africa's important mining museums is at Pilgrim's Rest, Mpumalanga, where the first economically viable goldfield was discovered. The entire village has been conserved and restored.
Agriculture in South Africa is depicted mainly at two museums. These are Kleinplasie in Worcester, Western Cape, which showcases the wine culture and the characteristic architecture of the winelands; and the Willem Prinsloo Agricultural Museum between Pretoria and Bronkhorstspruit in Gauteng. This Museum comprises two 'house' museums, and runs educational programmes based on their extensive collection of early farming implements, vehicles of yesteryear, and indigenous farm animals.
The Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg offers a realistic portrayal of the political situation in South Africa during the 1970s and 1980s. Exhibitions in the Museum feature, among other things, audio-visual footage recorded during the Apartheid era.
One of the most common types of museum in South Africa is the 'house' museum. Examples include an entire village nucleus in Stellenbosch; an example of the lifestyle of the wealthy wine farmer in Groot Constantia in the Western Cape; the mansion of the millionaire industrialist Sammy Marks, outside Pretoria; the Victorian affluence mirrored in Melrose House, Pretoria; and the Kruger House Museum in Pretoria, former residence of President Paul Kruger.
Simpler architectural variations have not been neglected, for instance the pioneer-dwelling in Silverton, Pretoria, and the humble farmhouse at Suikerbosrand near Heidelberg in Gauteng. There are several open-air museums which showcase the Black cultures of the country, for example Tsongakraal near Letsitele, Limpopo; the Ndebele Museum at Middelburg, Mpumalanga; the Bakone Malapa Museum at Polokwane, Limpopo; and the South Sotho Museum at Witsieshoek, Free State.
South Africa has two national military history museums. The South African Museum for Military History in Johannesburg reflects the military history of the country, while the War Museum in Bloemfontein depicts the Anglo-Boer War (South African War) in particular. The famous battlefields of KwaZulu-Natal, Northern Cape and North West are also worth a visit.
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