Iziko South African Museum
Iziko South African Museum stands in Cape Town’s Company’s Garden, where it has been situated since 1897. Founded in 1825, it brings African zoology, palaeontology and archaeology together across four levels.
Ground-floor galleries explore San rock art, Southern African cultures, Karoo fossils and marine life, including a cast of the first coelacanth discovered in 1938. The World of Water leads towards the Whale Well, where a 20.5-metre blue whale skeleton hangs above recordings of humpback songs. Sharkworld examines shark diversity and conservation, while the Iziko Planetarium carries you through the universe with an audio-visual presentation. Higher levels show Southern African mammals, birds, natural forms and the evolution of mammals through fossils from the ancient Karoo.
The displays also trace the museum’s development from 1825 to 1975 and confront changing approaches to indigenous history. The 1996 Miscast exhibition challenged earlier portrayals of Khoi and San people, including the troubling Bushman Diorama. One detail stays with you: a blue whale skeleton stretching 20.5 metres through the Whale Well.
- City
- Cape Town
- Content updated
Take this page with you
The myTuur app is free, and once you are standing at a spot its story starts by itself.
Spots like this one are the stops myTuur strings into tours through Cape Town. In the app, each story begins where you stand: walk up to a spot and it starts, read it on screen or listen as you go, then follow the route to the next one.
What is myTuur?
myTuur is a free city-guide app. Its tours are built from spots, and each spot carries a story that starts when you get there, to read or to listen to as you like.