Monument sights in South Africa
- Sort by:
- Popular
-
A
Dick King Statue
The Dick King Statue, near Gardiner St, commemorates the historic ride of this teenager in 1842 to fetch a British frigate, after the Boers took control of Durban.
reviewed
-
B
statue of Gandhi
A statue of Gandhi, who was famously ejected from a 1st-class carriage at Pietermaritzburg station, also stands defiant opposite the old colonial buildings on Church St.
reviewed
-
Peggy the Pegasus
Peggy the Pegasus, which stands 14m tall and qualifies for the spurious accolade of being the largest horse statue in the world. It is at the entrance to the Golden Horse Casino.
reviewed
-
C
Vasco da Gama Clock
The Vasco da Gama Clock, a florid Victorian monument on the Embankment just east of Stalwart Simelane St (Stanger St), was presented by the Portuguese government in 1897, the 400th anniversary of Vasco da Gama’s sighting of Natal.
reviewed
-
D
Freedom Park
One of the most exciting undertakings in Gauteng is Freedom Park. The site chosen for this massive project, on a kopje facing the Voortrekker Monument, provoked an outcry from those who saw this as politically motivated, but this is hardly a self-important ode to nationalism. Rather, it’s a sombre memorial to those people, local and international, who have sacrificed their lives in the name of freedom. At the time of writing you could only visit Hlapho, where the names of heroes have been inscribed, and the peaceful Isivivane Garden of Remembrance. It was scheduled to be completed sometime in 2009.
Visitor numbers to the park are strictly controlled, so calling…
reviewed
-
E
Rhodes Memorial
Modelled after the arch at London’s Hyde Park Corner, the impressive granite memorial to the mining magnate and former prime minister stands on the eastern slopes of Table Mountain. Rhodes bought all this land in 1895 for £9000 as part of a plan to preserve a relatively untouched section of the mountain for future generations.
Despite there being a sweeping view from the memorial to the Cape Flats and the mountain ranges beyond – and, by implication, right into the heart of Africa – the statue of Rhodes himself has the man looking rather grumpy. Behind the memorial there’s a pleasant tearoom, the Rhodes Memorial Restaurant, in an old stone cottage. The exit for the…
reviewed