The Bushmen and Khoi left their mark in the Nelspoort area in form of rock art

In pre-colonial days, the Cape was inhabited by indigenous Khoi people, who were herders and traded with early European visitors in the 16^th and 17^th centuries.

The Cape of Good Hope (it was also known, less flatteringly, as the Cape of Storms) was important both geographically and politically, as it was on the only early trade route from Europe and the Americas to India, the ‘Spice Islands’ of the East Indies, and the East.

The first European explorer to round the Cape was Bartolomeu Dias, in 1488.

It was to be more than 150 years later, in 1652, that the Dutch established a permanent settlement here, which grew much-needed fresh supplies for those who by now more frequently sailed this perilous route.

The first governor of the Cape, Jan van Riebeeck, started work on the Castle of Good Hope as a star-shaped fort. It was completed in 1679, and is the oldest building in South Africa. It is now open to the public as a museum featuring 18^th-century décor. 

As trade between Europe, India and the East increased, the Cape (Cape Town and its hinterland) became more important politically. The British took control of the Cape in 1795, then returned it to the Dutch in 1802, but fought for it again and occupied it from 1806 to 1814. After that, the Cape remained nominally under British rule until 1910, when the Union of South Africa was formed.

Dutch Reformed Church in Piketberg

Apart from the history of the Dutch and British in the Cape, other influences included that of the French – many of whom came as Huguenots fleeing religious repression in the 17th century – and the Malays, who came mostly as slaves during the Dutch rule. 

The French influence is still especially apparent in the small Western Cape town of Franschhoek, a drive of about an hour or so from Cape Town, while the Malay influence is still strong in some Cape cuisine and in the colourfully painted Bo-Kaap area in Cape Town, for instance.

Like South Africa’s other large cities, Cape Town witnessed large-scale forced removals when apartheid laws in the second half of the 20th century decreed it illegal for different races to live with one another. Today, Cape Town’s District Six Museum houses memorabilia from the community of District Six, donated by former residents who were forcibly removed to the barren Cape Flats during apartheid.

Cape Town also became notorious for Robben Island, the island-prison a few kilometres offshore, where apartheid’s most feared political prisoners were kept. Among its inmates was Nelson Mandela.

The Muratie Wine Estate – one of many wine farms in the Western Cape

Outside of Cape Town, you can visit many little historic towns rich with heritage. During the 1800s, for example, mission stations were established by European missionaries along what is now the West Coast Mission Route.

Dutch architecture is evident in many of the older parts of the province, but Stellenbosch, 'the town of oaks', remains the most well preserved, with many historical buildings still intact.

The numerous galleries and museums in the Western Cape house historical collections as diverse as art, gold, fossils, furniture, rock art, dinosaurs and Stone Age tools.

But your travellers won’t need to step into a museum to feel the history and multicultural traditions of the Western Cape, South Africa’s oldest province. They just need to walk down a street in central Cape Town, or visit the homestead on one of the province’s vineyards, some of them now hundreds of years old…