Some extraordinary facts that make Cape Town a unique natural wonder of the world.
Cape Town is one of the world's most distinctive cities, with a remarkable natural history that combines ancient geology and extraordinary biodiversity, to create spectacular natural landscapes.
The Cape Peninsula, is bounded by the Indian and Atlantic oceans and the interior mainland. Cape Town sits at one of the world's great oceanographic transition zones where cold Atlantic and warmer Indian Ocean influences interact. This mixing helps create exceptional marine biodiversity.
The colder Benguela Current of the Atlantic and the warmer Agulhas current of the Indian ocean, give rise to a water temperature difference of 5°C on either side of the peninsula.
The Cape Fold Belt is a vast mountain system extending for roughly 800 km across the southern Cape.
The sedimentary Sandstone and Malmesbury Shale that forms the Cape Fold Belt is more than 500 million years old; older than the Alps, Himalayas and Andes.
At that time, the Cape Fold Belt - of which Table Mountain is a part - was pushed out of the sea by tectonic uplift associated with plate collision, it is estimated to have been 3km high and has since eroded down to just over 1km above sea level.
During periods of lower sea levels, Robben Island formed part of the mainland and could be reached on foot.
Erosion and weathering of the rock, creates a soil that is uniquely low in nutrient and mineral value.
Despite this nutrient-poor soil, the Cape Floristic Region (the smallest of the world's six floral kingdoms) - is contained in an area of only 90 000 km2- yet produces the highest biodiversity on the planet.
The area contains nearly 9000 plant species, 70% of which are endemic (found nowhere else on Earth) and more species per/km2 than the Amazon.
Table Mountain alone contains more plant species than the entire United Kingdom.
The Cape Floristic Region is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The unique Fynbos vegetation depends on periodic fire for regeneration. The pods, in which seeds are buried underground, burst open during fire and then germinate at the next rainfall to produce a new generation of the plant.
The kingdom boasts 11 000 marine animal species, 3 500 of which are endemic, and 560 vertebrate species, including 142 reptile species, of which 27 are endemic.
Lions, elephants, rhinoceros, buffalo, and leopards once roamed the Cape Peninsula before disappearing during European inhabitation.
The Table Mountain Ghost Frog lives only in a handful of mountain streams on the Cape Peninsula.
Southern Right whales migrate to the South Coast from June to November to mate and give birth. The shallow waters of Walker Bay - just 2hrs drive from Cape Town - make Cape Town one of the world's premier whale-watching regions.
Archaeological evidence shows that early modern humans occupied the southern Cape coast more than 100 000 years ago.
One of the world's best-known African Penguin inhabits (Boulders) beaches on the Cape Peninsula.
All of this, within 1-2 hour's drive of the city centre!