The gold-rush city that shaped modern South Africa
Johannesburg grew from the gold discoveries of the 1880s into Africa's great commercial city. Its most powerful sights deal with recent history: the Apartheid Museum, Constitution Hill in a former prison complex, and Soweto, where Vilakazi Street holds Mandela House and the Hector Pieterson Memorial. Neighbourhoods such as Maboneng, Braamfontein and Rosebank have galleries, markets and rooftop bars. The Cradle of Humankind, with its fossil caves at Sterkfontein and Maropeng, lies less than an hour away.