City Bowl
The old city under the mountain, and the densest part of Cape Town for walking. Most of its museums, its oldest buildings and its squares sit within twenty minutes of each other on foot.
Guides to this part of the city
What to see
St Stephen’s Church
St Stephen’s Church on Riebeeck Square was built in 1800 as the African Theatre, the first purpose-built theatre in South Africa, at…
Tana Baru Cemetery
Tana Baru is a Muslim burial ground on the eastern slopes of Signal Hill, above the Bo-Kaap. Burials took place here from…
Koopmans-de Wet House
Koopmans-de Wet House at 35 Strand Street is a Cape Town townhouse whose site was first built on in 1699 and which…
Strand Street Lutheran Church
The Strand Street Lutheran Church began in 1774 as a hall in the form of a warehouse, put up by Martin Melck…
Martin Melck House
Martin Melck House at 96 Strand Street was built in the early 1780s as the parsonage of the Lutheran congregation next door,…
Church Square
Church Square is a small paved public square behind Groote Kerk, at the corner of Spin and Parliament Streets in central Cape…
Riebeeck Square
Riebeeck Square is an open block in central Cape Town that was one of the squares the town expanded around during the…
Auwal Mosque
Auwal Mosque on Dorp Street is the oldest mosque in South Africa and remains an active congregation rather than a historic interior…
Walking up from here
Lion’s Head Hike
The spiral walk up Lion’s Head, which SANParks gives as about two kilometres one way and one to one and a half…
Platteklip Gorge
Platteklip Gorge is the most direct and popular walking route to the summit of Table Mountain. A steep, stepped and strenuous climb…
Kloof Corner Hike
Kloof Corner is one of Cape Town's most rewarding short hikes — a steep but quick ascent from Tafelberg Road to a…
India Venster to Upper Cable Station
India Venster climbs the front face of Table Mountain from near the Lower Cable Station and finishes at the top. There are…
Things to do
Cape Malay Cooking Class
You cook, then you eat what you made. A class puts you inside a food tradition the Cape has been cooking for…
Sky-Hi Ride
Sky-Hi Ride is a 35-metre drop ride on the 28th floor of Hotel Sky in central Cape Town. Riders are lifted above…
Tandem Paragliding
Tandem paragliding from Signal Hill or Lion’s Head, chosen on the day for the wind. No experience is needed, the pilot does…
More about this area
Everything else in City Bowl
Kloof Corner
Kloof Corner is a viewpoint on the lower slopes of Table Mountain, reached on foot from Tafelberg Road just above Kloof Nek. It sits at the shoulder where the mountain turns from the city side towards the Atlantic, high enough to open up a genuine panorama but a long way below the summit. That position […]
Old Town House
Completed in 1755, the Old Town House served as Cape Town’s first town hall for almost a century before civic administration moved elsewhere. The building later became home to the Michaelis Collection after Sir Max Michaelis donated his internationally important collection of Dutch Golden Age paintings to the people of South Africa in 1914. Today […]
Cape Town Holocaust & Genocide Centre
Opened in 1999 as the first Holocaust centre in Africa, the Cape Town Holocaust & Genocide Centre was established to educate visitors about the Holocaust while promoting respect for human rights and diversity. Its mission extends beyond preserving history by encouraging dialogue about prejudice, racism and the responsibilities of individuals in building more inclusive societies. […]
South African Jewish Museum
Opened by Nelson Mandela in December 2000, the South African Jewish Museum was created to preserve and share the story of Jewish life in South Africa. Built as an extension of the historic Old Shul, the museum combines contemporary architecture with one of the country’s most significant religious heritage sites. The galleries follow the journey […]
Bo-Kaap Museum
Established in 1978, the Bo-Kaap Museum occupies a house dating back to the 1760s and was restored to illustrate the lifestyle of a prosperous nineteenth-century Cape Muslim family. Rather than focusing only on objects behind glass, the museum recreates a lived-in home with period furnishings, household items and displays that place visitors inside the social […]
Rust en Vreugd
Rust en Vreugd is one of Cape Town’s finest surviving Cape Dutch townhouses and an intimate museum within the Iziko Museums of South Africa. Built around 1777–1778 for Willem Cornelis Boers, the Dutch East India Company’s Fiscal at the Cape, the restored building stands on what was then the town’s outer edge. The museum houses […]
Slave Lodge
The Slave Lodge is one of South Africa’s oldest surviving buildings and one of Cape Town’s most significant historical museums. Built in 1679 by the Dutch East India Company, it originally housed enslaved men, women and children brought to the Cape from East Africa, Madagascar, India, Indonesia and other parts of Asia. Thousands of enslaved […]
St George’s Cathedral
St George’s Cathedral stands at 5 Wale Street, at the top end of the Company’s Garden. It is the oldest cathedral in southern Africa and the mother church of the Anglican Diocese of Cape Town, with a reach that extends as far north as the Kunene River. The building is neo-gothic and cruciform, arranged around […]
District Six Museum
The District Six Museum occupies the former Methodist church at 25A Buitenkant Street, on the edge of the ground that District Six once covered. It grew out of the Hands Off District Six campaign of 1988 and the District Six Museum Foundation formed the following year, and it opened on 10 December 1994 with an […]
Iziko Planetarium and Digital Dome
The Iziko Planetarium and Digital Dome is described by Iziko as the most advanced digital planetarium on the African continent. It is a full dome theatre that puts 360 degree imagery overhead, used for public astronomy shows, for art and film projects, and for scientific data visualisation. Shows run to the official programme rather than […]