Location

Off the N2 national highway, 130 kilometres north-east of Port Elizabeth

Ranked among South Africa's most historic urban centres, Grahamstown began life as a fortified colonial outpost in 1812 and received its baptism of fire in 1819, when it was attacked by a 10,000-strong Xhosa army. The garrison just managed to hold out, and with the arrival of the British settlers in the following year it expanded, its status rapidly changing from fortress to prosperous trading settlement.

By 1864 it was important enough to serve as temporary seat of the Cape colonial government - the only occasion in which parliament convened outside Cape Town (this was a move designed to placate local secessionists, who wanted the eastern Cape declared a separate colony).

Today Grahamstown is an attractive little city, rather Victorian in character but with hints here and there of its more military origins (a few early, sturdy settler homes have been preserved). It's also a noted educational centre, home to many schools and to the campus of Rhodes university.Sometimes known as ‘the Settler City', Grahamstown is also referred to as ‘the City of Saints' for the number of churches within its bounds.

The early residents are commemorated by the 1820 Settlers Monument, on Gunfire Hill overlooking town. The memorial comprises exhibition halls, conference centre, recreation and entertainment areas and a splendid auditorium which serves as principal host to the annual and very sociable National Festival of the Arts. The latter, held in July, is perhaps South Africa's premier creative exposition, a forum for innovative drama, dance, music and the visual arts (craftwork is also a feature). It attracts folk from all over the country and beyond.

Highlights

Botanical garden The wildflower reserve, which stretches up the slopes of Gunfire Hill from the university to the monument, offers some lovely proteas, aloes, ancient cicadas and plants indigenous to areas of early British settlement. The old prison in the grounds is now a craft shop.

Museums The history and natural science museums, both in Somerset Street, focus on the colonial past. The latter, though, is more notable for its plant and animal fossils dating back to the age of the early reptile-dinosaurs (the so-called ‘fearsome heads'), 250 million years ago, and for its displays of Xhosa lifestyles and African artefacts. The Observatory museum, in Bathurst Street, boasts a ‘Meridian Room' and camera obscure, a complex affair, popular with the Victorians, of mirrors and lenses which produces coloured images of the surrounding cityscape in the darkened chamber. The museum also has its place in the story of medicine and mining - it was here that Dr William Atherton, a prominent local resident, identified the first big diamond to emerge from the fabulous Kimberley fields. He also pioneered the use of anaesthetics, and founded hospitals and the country's first research laboratory. The museum's herb garden is worth an hour of your time.

Library of African Music (ILAM) Wide selection of musical instruments on show; fascinating recordings from southern, central and Eastern Africa; instruments and cassettes on sale.

JLB Smith Institute of Ichthyology Home base of and named after the scientist who identified the famous and long thought-to-be-extinct coelacanth fish. The first coelacanth was caught off East London in 1938.

Township tours can be arranged. Local colour, though, is more easily enjoyed in Market Square, where informal traders of all kinds make their living.

Amenities

Grahamstown is well equipped to welcome and look after tourists.  You'll find the information centre in High Street, next to the city hall. The town has hotels, motels, guest-houses and B&Bs. High Street is the main shopping thoroughfare. 

Nearest towns Port Alfred, on the coast 50 kilometres to the south, Fort Beaufort, is to the north. East London lies on the N2 to the east, Port Elizabeth to the south-west.

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GRAHAMSTOWN

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