Table Mountain
Table Mountain dominates Cape Town. Table Mountain is Cape Town. Without the mountain, it’s unlikely the city would ever have developed.
At 1,086 metres (3,563 ft) above sea level at its highest point, it’s not exactly small and its dramatic setting makes it seem huge. Apparently it can be seen from 125 miles out to sea.
Table Mountain is at the northern end of the Cape Peninsula and its large plateau includes the peninsula’s highest point. Together with the range of hills stretching 50km down the peninsula to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope, the whole peninsula has been, for hundreds of years, a pretty dramatic corner to turn for sailors heading east into the Indian Ocean, or from there back into the Atlantic and north to Europe.
For the adventurous, there are many trails you can use to climb the mountain. Looking down from the vantage point of the easy way up – the cable car – the trails look fairly precipitous and are clearly not something to be embarked upon lightly…