A city wrapped around Table Mountain

Cape Town is shaped by its mountain. The flat sandstone summit of Table Mountain rises more than a kilometre above the city bowl, flanked by Devil’s Peak and Lion’s Head, and when cloud pours over its edge, Capetonians say the tablecloth is laid. The Dutch East India Company founded a supply station here in 1652, and the Company’s Garden, first planted to feed passing ships, is still a public park in the centre.

The city carries every chapter of South Africa’s history. In the Bo-Kaap, on the slopes of Signal Hill, brightly painted houses and the Auwal Mosque of 1794 recall the Cape Malay community, descended largely from people the Dutch brought from South-East Asia, many of them enslaved. The District Six Museum tells of a neighbourhood razed under apartheid, and from the harbour a ferry runs to Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was held for eighteen years.

Food draws on the same mix. Try bobotie, spiced minced meat baked under an egg custard, Cape Malay curries and koesisters, and snoek grilled over coals on the coast. Wine is the other draw: Groot Constantia has made it within today’s city limits since 1685, and Stellenbosch and Franschhoek lie among the mountains within an hour or so by road. The Atlantic side is cold for swimming; False Bay, on the other side of the peninsula, is a few degrees warmer.