Cape Town
Brief history.
ir Francis Drake, in 1580, seeing the Cape for the first time, called it "the fairest Cape of all." 
Other explorers from the north have also dubbed it the "Cape of Storms" and, conversely, the "Cape of Good Hope." It is South Africa's only city with a Mediterranean climate - summer sunniness and winter rain.
Founded in 1652 by the Dutch East India Company (de Veneenigde Oost-Inische Compagnie (VOC)), the city has since it's early days seen many different visitors and immigrants from all over the world: the French Huguenots bringing with them their wine making expertise, the Batavian (Malay) slaves contributing their cuisine, the Dutch brought the legal system and architecture, the English brought a language and government system, and the indigenous peoples gave the Cape its unique and diverse character. The original inhabitants, the pastoralist Khoikhoi and hunter San peoples, recently inspired the country's new coat of arms, replacing the previous latin motto with Khoi-San: "Unity in Diversity".
The city's history however goes back to the Early Stone Age (200 000 years ago to 1.2 million). Very little is known of the earliest Cape inhabitants apart from the hand axes and weathered stone tools found dotted across the landscape. They may have been the ancestors of the Khoisan hunter-gatherers who occupied the land for thousands of years prior to the arrival of Europeans.
Cape Town is also famous for the legend of the Flying Dutchman, the ghost ship that sailors claim to see on stormy nights just off the coast. The phantom ship, legend has it, is captained by Van der Decken who ran into one of the Cape's notorious storms in 1641, and as his ship sank he vowed to keep sailing until doomsday.
Dubbed the "mother city", Cape Town also has the continent's most developed gay and lesbian scene and eclipses all other South African cities when it comes to the number of gay and lesbian venues (there are well over 100). It has consistently made it to the top ten of international gay and lesbian travel destinations.
Victoria & Alfred Waterfront - One of South Africa's biggest tourist attractions. Worth visiting is the Two Oceans Aquarium as well as the Maritime Museum. Daily boat trips around the harbour and to Robben Island.
Table Mountain - Take the cable car to visit South Africa's most famous landmark. Magnificent views from the summit across the Cape Peninsula, Table Bay and Robben Island.
Cape Point - This is where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet. The Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve is an unspoilt stretch of land and coast with a wealth of fauna and flora. The new lighthouse is the most powerful in the world, with an electric light of 19 million candle power.
Robben Island and the gay past.
Robben Island is a barren windswept island and was the prison home of former President Nelson Mandela for some three decades. Here you can experience the view that kept Nelson Mandela's dream of freedom for his country alive. Ferry trips are undertaken to the island and bookings must be made well in advance. Robben Island is one of South Africa's three World heritage sites.
What many do not know, is that it was also here, during the Dutch East India Company's (the VOC) occupation of the Cape, where the first men were imprisoned for sodomy. The Dutch Sodomy Panic of the 1730s was succeeded by several others, including that of the 1750s. We know that a Nicholaas Modde was the first to be held on the Island for having sex with a Batavian slave repeatedly. The two were executed by drowning in Table Bay in 1753.
There were many other recorded cases (VOC archives, Amsterdam) of men being held on Robben Island for homosexual sex.
With the release of Africa's most famous son, Nelson Mandela in 1992, things moved speedily towards including gay rights in the South African Constitution in 1996. Article 9 (iii) specifically includes a "sexual orientation" clause guaranteeing full and equal rights for gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transcender people. No wonder that Cape Town is such a unique place in the world!
