South Africa

Guide to SOUTH AFRICA

SOUTH AFRICA which official name is Republic of South Africa or South Africa, is a country from Africa located at the Southern Africa, at the southern tip of the continent of Africa. SOUTH AFRICA with 4,862 km sq km, limits with: Botswana 1,840 km, Lesotho 909 km, Mozambique 491 km, Namibia 967 km, Swaziland 430 km, Zimbabwe 225 km; and is divided in 9 province . SOUTH AFRICA's capital is Bloemfontein (judicial) , but SOUTH AFRICA 's most populated city is cape town with about 3,433,504 inhabitants.

History of SOUTH AFRICA

SOUTH AFRICA's government is republic; a Republic with a Executive government type, with President Thabo Mbeki as head of state.

Other symbols of SOUTH AFRICA are South African motto " !ke e: /xarra //ke (/Xam, Diverse people unite or Unity in Diversity) South African anthem "Nkosi Sikelel iAfrica & Die Stem van Suid Afrika (God Bless Africa & The Call of South Africa combined) South African flag.South African flag is composed by two equal width horizontal bands of red (top) and blue separated by a central green band which splits into a horizontal Y, the arms of which end at the corners of the hoist side; the Y embraces a black isosceles triangle from which the arms are separated by narrow yellow bands; the red and blue bands are separated from the green band and its arms by narrow white stripes .

SOUTH AFRICA's history is quite long: After the British seized the Cape of Good Hope area in 1806, many of the Dutch settlers (the Boers) trekked north to found their own republics. The discovery of diamonds (1867) and gold (1886) spurred wealth and immigration and intensified the subjugation of the native inhabitants. The Boers resisted British encroachments but were defeated in the Boer War (1899-1902). The resulting Union of South Africa operated under a policy of apartheid - the separate development of the races. The 1990s brought an end to apartheid politically and ushered in black majority rule.

SOUTH AFRICAs geography

Guide to travel to SOUTH AFRICA

If you are thinking on traveling to SOUTH AFRICA, you will have to take in consideration some points like SOUTH AFRICA's currency, SOUTH AFRICA's weather, SOUTH AFRICA's national holiday and SOUTH AFRICA's transports.

The first thing you need to know for your travels abroad is country's currency. SOUTH AFRICA`s currency is called rand ( R), which is divided in 100 cents. For your consideration, rand's exchange rate is about 0 per dolar.7.5078251275.

SOUTH AFRICA's weather is characterized to be mostly semiarid; subtropical along east coast; sunny days, cool nights. So be sure of choosing the proper date to travel to SOUTH AFRICA.

You can also consider to visit SOUTH AFRICA on it's national holiday to get in SOUTH AFRICA's culture. If you do so, SOUTH AFRICA's national holiday is called Freedom Day, 27 April.

Also, if you like natural wonders, don't forget to visit the highest point of SOUTH AFRICA: Njesuthi 3,408 m. And try also to get to SOUTH AFRICA's lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 mBut if you prefer the city, you must visit SOUTH AFRICA's tallest structure: ( ).

Don't be afraid to take a flight to SOUTH AFRICA, with more than 731 airports and 7 airlines, you will get to SOUTH AFRICA without problems. Once there, you can choose the transport type that better fits your needs. SOUTH AFRICA has about20,872 of railways, and also0 of roadways, so is a good place for a car trip.

South African Culture

SOUTH AFRICA is known by South Africans as SOUTH AFRICA in the shortened way. South African, about 43,997,828 people, are composed by different ethnics: black African 79%, white 9.6%, colored 8.9%, Indian/Asian 2.5% (2001 census). And they also have different languages: Zulu, Xhosa, Venda, Tswana, Tswana, Tsonga, Swati, Sotho, Northern Sotho, Ndebele, English, Afrikaans.

Another relevant point nowadays it's SOUTH AFRICA's religion. South Africans are divided in Zion Christian 11.1%, Pentecostal/Charismatic 8.2%, Catholic 7.1%, Methodist 6.8%, Dutch Reformed 6.7%, Anglican 3.8%, Muslim 1.5%, other Christian 36%, other 2.3%, unspecified 1.4%, none 15.1% (2001 census).

Videos of South Africa

See some viedos of South Africa's places and tourism before choosing your vacations destination.

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