Place of Gold
Gauteng, South Africa
Located on the Highveld, the highest part of South Africa's great interior plateau, Johannesburg is the largest city in the country and is known as the Gateway to Africa. As well as being the bustling financial capital of Gauteng it is also a city that most travellers will pass through at some stage of their journey.
With Soweto, largest of the country's former 'African townships', to the southwest of the centre, and affluent garden suburbs to the north, Johannesburg offers a wide variety of experiences to anyone spending a night or two there.
Background
Johannesburg was first established in 1886 when gold was found in the area and President Paul Kruger declared the area open for public digging. From its origins as a tent town it progressed into a tin-shack settlement, then a more elegant Edwardian town, before becoming the modern cosmopolitan city of skyscrapers that it is today. It was declared a city in 1928 and its nickname – Egoli - means “place of gold”.