How to tour Johannesburg
Johannesburg, Jozi to locals, is South Africa’s largest city. It was founded in 1886 after gold was found on the Witwatersrand, and it grew into the country’s economic heart and a centre of the struggle against apartheid.
This tour starts at Constitution Hill, crosses Braamfontein and the Nelson Mandela Bridge to Newtown, visits Wits University and the Botanical Garden at Emmarentia, then heads into Soweto for Vilakazi Street, the Hector Pieterson Memorial, the Orlando Towers and Kliptown, and ends at the Apartheid Museum and Gold Reef City. Each stop has five short films to guide you through it.
1. Constitution Hill
Braamfontein · start here
Constitution Hill was a prison for over a century, holding Gandhi and Mandela. Today the Old Fort, Number Four and the Women’s Jail stand beside South Africa’s Constitutional Court.
Walk this order. Entrance → The Old Fort → Number Four → Constitutional Court → Exit Toward Braamfontein.
2. Braamfontein and Newtown
Inner city · bridge and culture
Braamfontein is a lively student and arts quarter. The Nelson Mandela Bridge crosses the railway to Newtown, home of the Market Theatre and Museum Africa.
Walk this order. Braamfontein Streets → Toward the Bridge → Nelson Mandela Bridge → Newtown → Museum Africa and Exit.
3. Wits University
Braamfontein · the university
The University of the Witwatersrand, founded in 1922, is one of Africa’s leading universities. Its Great Hall with its columns faces wide lawns on the main campus.
Walk this order. The Great Hall → Central Block → Library Lawns → West Campus → Exit Toward the Botanical Garden.
4. Botanical Garden and Emmarentia Dam
Emmarentia · roses and water
The Johannesburg Botanical Garden in Emmarentia has a famous rose garden, herb and succulent beds and ancient cycads, beside the open water of Emmarentia Dam.
Walk this order. Main Entrance → The Rose Garden → Herbs and Succulents → Cycads and Ancient Plants → Emmarentia Dam.
5. Vilakazi Street
Orlando West · two Nobel laureates
Vilakazi Street in Orlando West is the only street in the world where two Nobel Peace Prize winners lived, Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Mandela House is now a museum.
Walk this order. The Street → Two Nobel Laureates → Tutu House → Mandela House → Inside Mandela House.
6. Hector Pieterson Memorial
Orlando West · June 1976
The Hector Pieterson Memorial and Museum remember the Soweto Uprising of 16 June 1976, when students protesting against Afrikaans-only schooling were shot.
Walk this order. The Memorial → The Museum → Where It Happened → Remembering 1976 → Exit Toward the Orlando Towers.
7. Orlando Towers
Orlando East · murals and the power station
The Orlando Towers are two cooling towers of a former coal power station, painted with huge murals and now used for bungee jumping and views across Soweto.
Walk this order. The Approach → The Power Station → The Murals → Soweto Life → Exit Toward Kliptown.
8. Kliptown and Walter Sisulu Square
Soweto · the Freedom Charter
Kliptown is Soweto’s oldest settlement. At Walter Sisulu Square the Freedom Charter was adopted in 1955; a brick monument now holds its words.
Walk this order. Walter Sisulu Square → Kliptown Streets → Klipspruit → Soweto Markets → Exit Toward the Apartheid Museum.
9. Apartheid Museum
Ormonde · the story of apartheid
The Apartheid Museum tells the story of 20th-century South Africa, from the rise of apartheid to its end and the first democratic election in 1994.
Walk this order. The Entrance → Identity and Journeys → The Displays → Pillars and Reflection → Exit Toward Gold Reef City.
10. Gold Reef City
Ormonde · gold-rush finale
Gold Reef City, beside the museum, is a theme park built around an old gold mine, with Victorian streets, an underground mine tour and roller coasters.
Walk this order. The Gold Rush → The Mine Tour → Gold and the Old Town → Rides and Thrills → End of the Tour.
