The oldest of all Cape Town's street markets takes place on the Grand Parade, which was used as a military parade ground during the 18th and 19th centuries.  Once, penguin's eggs and carriages were sold here, now it is a noisy bazaar selling fabrics, flowers, knick knacks, books, food and much more.

Nearby is the famous flower sellers arcade, a fanfare of colour and fragrance.

Cobbled, shady Greenmarket Square, originally the site of a fruit and vegetable market, is now a bustling flea market, where hundreds of traders sell everything from teaspoons to T-shirts.

A block away is Church Street, the hub of the city's antique trade.  A small market takes place here on Fridays.  Other markets in the city include a large, undercover craft market on the waterfront, the huge Green Point Market, the Salt River fruit and vegetable market, and the medieval Craft Fair at Groot Constantia.

Of the many other icons of Cape Town's rich history we have selected the following few for special mention:

* The oldest church building in South Africa is Groote Kerk in Adderley Street, which has a clock tower dating back to 1703 and a magnificent carved pulpit by sculptor Anton Anreith.  Nearby is the neo-Gothic St George's Cathedral, built from Table Mountain sandstone and designed by Sir Herbert Baker, architect of the Union Buildings in Pretoria.

* Koopmans de Wet House, a stately 18th century townhouse on Strand Street, houses a fine collection of period porcelain, glassware, furniture and silver.

* Originally a slave lodge, the handsomely proportioned Cultural History Museum at the top of Adderley Street is filled with antiques, paintings, furniture, coins, costumes and weapons, as well as a collection of inscribed postal stones.

* The muezzin's call to prayer still echoes five times a day through the steep cobbled streets of the Bo-Kaap or Malay Quarter on the slopes of Signal Hill.  There are several mosques, many beautiful Georgian townhouses and a small museum on Wale Street that chronicles the history of the Muslim people in the Cape.

* More than 8000 species of trees and plants fill the Company Gardens at the top of Adderley Street.  covering some 6ha on the original site of Jan van Riebeeck's 18ha garden, this lovely botanical garden contains numerous historical monuments and buildings.  Oak-lined Government Avenue runs the length of the gardens, and is flanked by the South African National Library, the National Gallery and the Houses of Parliament.  Items of particular interest in the park include an 18th century sundial, a slave bell, a wisteria arbour, an aviary, two war memorials and several statues.  The saffron pear tree below the restaurant dates from Van Riebeeck's time and is believed to be the oldest cultivated tree in the country.

* At the tope end of the Company Gardens is the Natural History Museum which has a spectacular four-storey 'whale well' containing suspended skeletons.  The museum houses world-renowned examples of rock art along with many other archaeological relics.

* The Lion's Battery on Signal Hill is used to fire salutes on ceremonial occasions.  The noon gun is fired at twelve daily and is one of Cape Town's most distinctive sounds.  Also on Signal Hill is an old Muslim tomb, one of a holy circle of shrines that encircles the city.

* Flanked by stone pines on the slopes of Table Mountain, above De Waal Drive, is one of South Africa's most dignified memorials, a pillared Doric style temple built in 1912 in memory of Cecil John Rhodes.

* An ancient twisted milkwood tree in Treaty Street, Woodstock, marks the spot where a treaty was signed between the British and the Dutch after the Battle of Blaauwberg in January 1806 after which the Cape Colony became a British possession once more.

* Commissioned in 1824, the red and white striped Green Point Lighthouse is the oldest solidly constructed lighthouse in the country.

* The glassed in remains of a stone and brick reservoir built in 1663 and discovered during building excavations, can be seen in the Golden Acre shopping centre on Adderley Street.

* The old Lutheran Church complex on Strand Street, with its handsome clock tower, and carved pulpit, was completed in 1774.  Initially it was erected as a huge barn to conceal Lutheran religious services from the officials of the Dutch East India Company.  It is also known as the Swan Church, because of the swan, a symbol of the Lutheran faith, that perches above the entrance.

* Cape Town's only surviving water mill, the Josephine Mill in Newlands, has been restored as a working milling museum.  The mill, which has a cast iron wheel, was built in 1849 by Swedish settler Jacob Letterstedt, who named it for Crown Princess Josephine of Sweden.

* Mostert's Mill in Mowbray was built by Sybrandt Mostert in 1796 and is the only Dutch windmill in South Africa still in working order.

Accommodation in and around Cape Town