KIMBERLEY – The city that sparkles!!
Kimberley is a prospecting city famous for its quality diamonds, the largest man-made excavation in the world and impressive variety of tourist attractions
It is the capital city of the Northern Cape and surrounded by five of South Africa’s big rivers, two of them being the Orange and Vaal Rivers.
Kimberley has an average of 9.4 hours of sunshine per day throughout the year and receive an annual rainfall of about 450 mm. Kimberley is situated almost in the centre of South Africa between Cape Town and Johannesburg.
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Surrounding Kimberley are many memorials and sites of some important battles of the Anglo-Boer war, most notably the Siege of Kimberley in 1899 with the famous “Long Cecil” on display, and the battlefield site of Magersfontein where Boer General used trench warfare for the first time.
The city boasts other firsts like the first city in the Southern Hemisphere to install electric street lighting and the first city in South Africa to switch to an automatic exchange, and it housed the country’s first Stock Exchange.
Kimberley’s tram service operates daily between 09:00 and 16:15 carrying visitors between the City Hall and the Big Hole and Kimberly Mine Museum. En route visitors are treated to some of the city’s historical and noteworthy sites, while the tram also stops outside the Star of the West, the oldest pub in Kimberley.
Although it’s a provincial capital and the historic centre of production of one of the world’s most valuable materials, KIMBERLEY itself is neither large nor glamorous. During the diamond rush, it was the fastest-growing city in the southern hemisphere and Cecil Rhodes held in his grip not only the fabulously wealthy diamond industry, but the heart and mind of the British Empire – yet status and sophistication have been draining from Kimberley ever since.
However, Kimberley’s legacy gives it an historic flavour few other cities in South Africa can match. It’s worth spending a few hours seeking out some of the many old buildings, not forgetting to peer into the depths of the Big Hole, the remarkable, hand-dug chasm taking up almost as much land area as the city’s central business district (CBD).
Places of interest
Museums and Historic Places – a trendsetter in many ways, various memorials and national monuments in Kimberley remind us of historic firsts.
Art Gallery in the Kimberley Mine Museum, it contains a set of De Beers-commissioned watercolours depicting Victorian life in Kimberley
Belgravia – The oldest, exclusively residential suburb features architecture from 1873 to today.
Cathedral Church of St Cyprian – has the longest nave in the country.
Dunluce – and elegant home built in 1897 for Gustav Bonas and John Orr’s family home from 1902 to 1975.
Market Square – Kimberley was developed around this square, formerly the main trading area for the dry diggings.
Rhodes’s Statue – Kimberley citizens knew him, astride his horse, a map of Africa on his lap.
Square Hill Memorial – Built to honour those of the Cape Crops, who lost their lives in the Battle of Square Hill, Palestine during the First World War.
Star of the West – formerly a hotel and today South Africa’s oldest continuously operating bar, it houses CJ Rhodes’s custom-made barstool.
Synagogue – a building in Byzantine Style.
THE HALFWAY HOUSE INN – Situated half way between Kimberley city centre and Beaconsfield, “The Half” was, and still is, a drive-in pub (believed to be the only one remaining in the world). Legend has it that the original “driver” was Cecil Rhodes on his horse, en route between his mining interests in Kimberley and Beaconsfield. Another legend has it that when instructed by the municipality to erect a 6ft [2m] wall around the front of the premises, the then owners of “The Half” dug a 6ft deep trench and erected the wall in the bottom of that. (Apparently these both fall into the category of “urban legends” – but they make good yarns to tell visitors!)
Halfway House Inn
Star of the West
The Big Hole
Diggers Memorial
City Hall
Steam Locomotives
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