Johannesburg City Morning Tour

Johannesburg's existence has everything to do with the discovery of gold in 1886, which led to a huge gold-rush. An area that lay empty before 1886 grew into a bustling world city with more than 115 000 inhabitants by 1900. Today Johannesburg is the economical powerhouse of the whole African continent. The greater Johannesburg-Pretoria-Soweto metropole could be seen as a mega-city of nearly 15 million people (estimate).

Your tour takes you to the Carlton Center with sweeping 360deg views over the city. You proceed to the Mary Fitzgerald Square, named after the first female trade unionist in South Africa. The square is in the middle of the Newtown urban renewal project. Next to the square you have the opportunity to explore Museum Africa, which tells the story of both early and modern Johannesburg, mining, Apartheid, socio-economic developments over the years, etc.

You visit the iconic Constitution Hill. The "Fort", part of the complex, built in 1896 later became a prison that originally housed white male prisoners. It was extended under the Apartheid Government to hold political prisoners as well as common criminals. A women's section was also added. Many of the best-known figures in the struggle against Apartheid spent time incarcerated in this complex as political prisoners. In the 'new South Africa' the complex has become the site of the Constitutional Court, pledging equal justice for all. You'll get to tour parts of the prison complex (now empty), as well as the public areas of the Court.