Ancient Landscapes Shape Daily Life for Millions of South Africans

South Africans living in Cape Town, Stellenbosch, or the Karoo walk daily through landscapes whose human histories stretch back thousands of years, long before any colonial administrator drew a boundary or named a street. That depth of occupation, and the question of who gets counted in the official record, shapes how the country’s oldest places are understood today.

Measuring age is the first complication. Cape Town holds the distinction of being the country’s oldest established city, its colonial settlement dating to 1652. Stellenbosch, established in 1679 when Governor Simon van der Stel named an island in the Eerste River, claims recognition as the oldest town in the formal European sense. Yet the Stellenbosch Heritage Foundation itself acknowledges that Indigenous settlements existed in the area long before the colonial town was founded. The official founding dates, in other words, capture only one layer of a much older story.

Stellenbosch grew around agriculture, particularly wine and fruit farming, and its oak-lined streets and Cape Dutch architecture have become defining features. The town’s story encompasses more than its prettiest buildings. It includes slavery, forced labour, segregation, and the development of a society shaped by people from vastly different backgrounds. Visitors can explore the compact historic centre in a morning, moving through Cape Dutch buildings and old streets. The Stellenbosch Village Museum offers restored period homes spanning from 1709 to 1850, providing glimpses into different domestic eras. The surrounding Winelands have developed into one of South Africa’s best-known food and wine destinations, making it possible to combine heritage exploration with cellar-door tastings and scenic drives.

Moving east, the towns become smaller and quieter. Swellendam was officially established as a magisterial district in 1745, making it the third oldest town in conventional South African rankings after Cape Town and Stellenbosch. The district was created as the Cape settlement expanded inland and farmers needed government administration closer to home. The name Swellendam, adopted in 1747, honours Cape Governor Hendrik Swellengrebel and his wife, Helena ten Damme. The area’s story reaches back much further, though. San hunter-gatherers and Khoekhoen pastoralists inhabited the Western Cape for thousands of years before European settlement, and the Swellendam Heritage Association notes that these communities were already part of the region’s landscape long before the town existed. In 1795, Swellendam’s residents declared independence from Dutch rule, creating the short-lived Republic of Swellendam before British forces took control of the Cape later that year. The town sits beneath the Langeberg Mountains, close to the Breede River. The Drostdy Museum provides insight into the town’s colonial past, while the surrounding mountains and reserves encourage longer stays.

On the Cape Peninsula, Simon’s Town offers a different kind of old-world atmosphere. The town developed around Simon’s Bay, a natural anchorage that became the official anchorage of the Dutch East India Company in 1743. Its importance grew after the British established a permanent naval base there in the 19th century. The early population included VOC officials, soldiers, enslaved people from parts of Africa and Asia, indigenous Khoisan people, sailors, farmers and traders. The Simon’s Town Historical Society has mapped a Historic Mile through the town, and the Simon’s Town Museum explores the community’s layered history.

Graaff-Reinet, established in 1786, is the fourth oldest magisterial district founded under colonial administration. Named after Governor Cornelis Jacob van de Graaf and his wife, Cornelia Reynet, the town sits in the stark beauty of the Great Karoo, surrounded almost entirely by the Camdeboo National Park. It holds more than 220 heritage sites and an unusually rich collection of Cape Dutch, Victorian and Karoo architecture. Within the surrounding landscape are archaeological traces of hunter-gatherer communities, including the Cupule Boulder, where intentionally hammered depressions are believed to have had ritual or symbolic significance. The Valley of Desolation, where enormous dolerite columns rise above the Karoo, offers accessible viewpoints, while longer walks like the Crag Lizard Trail and Eerstefontein allow deeper exploration.

The conventional definition of an old town begins to break down when considering the Richtersveld Cultural and Botanical Landscape in the Northern Cape. This is not a town at all, but a vast, mountainous desert landscape where the Nama people continue a semi-nomadic pastoral way of life. UNESCO recognises seasonal patterns in the landscape that may have persisted for as much as 2,000 years. The Nama move between grazing areas and stock posts, traditionally using portable rush-mat houses known as haru oms, while maintaining detailed knowledge of the landscape and its medicinal plants. The Richtersveld was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2007 as a living, evolving cultural landscape.

Further north, the red dunes of the Kalahari tell an older story still. The ǂKhomani Cultural Landscape, on South Africa’s border with Botswana and Namibia, contains evidence of human occupation from the Stone Age to the present. UNESCO describes the landscape as being associated with the ǂKhomani San and their deep knowledge of plants, animals, water and survival in an extremely demanding environment. The ǂKhomani community continues to reclaim and revive cultural knowledge, languages and traditions that were severely disrupted by forced removals during apartheid. The landscape was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2017. The SANParks interpretation centre at Twee Rivieren showcases the knowledge and stories of the people of the Southern Kalahari.

For more information on South Africa’s historic places, visit https://www.getaway.co.za/things-to-do/oldest-places-in-south-africa/ to explore comprehensive guides and travel recommendations.

The real story of South Africa’s oldest places is not simply about how old the buildings are. It is about the people who lived here before them, the people who built the towns, the people who were displaced from them, and the communities who continue to give these landscapes meaning. The oldest places are not always the ones with the oldest buildings. Whether the communities still living within these landscapes, particularly the Nama and the ǂKhomani San, will find their histories given equal weight in how South Africa tells its story of place remains an open question.