Interesting facts about South Africa

INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT SOUTH AFRICA

Things that make South Africa unique and an exellent holiday destination.

*South Africa - world's biggest producer/exporter of mohair and ostrich products.
*South Africa has the deepest mines in the world - 2.5 miles at Western Deep Levels Mine.
*The largest hydro-electric tunnel system in the world at the Orange Fish Rivers Tunnel.
*Officially, the youngest language in the world is Afrikaans. Developed from Dutch, French, German and other influences into a fully fledged language with its own dictionary. According to experts it is also the easiest to learn and speak due to very simple grammar rules.
*Biggest producer of gold, platinum, chromium, vanadium, manganese and alumino-silicates. Produces 40% of the world's chrome and vermiculite.
*The world's 2 largest platinum mines near Rustenburg.
*The world's 2nd oldest air force, established 1920.
*Durban - the largest port in Africa and 9th largest in the world.
*Fourth largest coal reserves in the world.

Companies:
*The largest refinery of gold in the world.
*The South African oil company SASOL has established the only commercially proven oil from coal operations in the world.
*The world's biggest producer of non-fuel minerals is South African company Anglo American Corporation.
*The De Beers Group of companies control more than 80% of the world supply of rough diamonds.
*South African Breweries ranks as the 2nd largest brewing company in the world. Supplies 50% of China's beer.

Entertainment

*The 2nd oldest Film Industry in the world.
*The Cape Argus Cycle Tour is the largest timed cycle race in the world.
*Cape Grace Hotel (120 rooms) was voted World's Best Hotel, by readers of Conde Naste Traveller magazine (this hotel attained the highest score ever in the history of the awards).
*The Comrades ultra marathon between Durban and PieterMaritzburg is ranked the toughest marathon in the world.
*Seal Island in False Bay is the only place in the world where Great Whites consistently breach (leap completely out of the water) to catch their prey, mainly seals. In 1991, South Africa became the first country in the world to protect the Great White sharks.
*The Boesmansgat - 2nd deepest sinkhole (299 metres) and the largest of its kind in the world. Many attempts have been made at world records in cave-diving in this exceptional sinkhole.
*Travel & NatureThe Kruger National Park nature reserve supports the greatest variety of wildlife species on the African continent.
*The Lost City Resort is the largest thermal resort in the world as well as the largest building project undertaken in the southern hemisphere.
*Home to one of the world's 6 floral kingdoms, South Africa has one-tenth (23 >200) of the world's flowering plants, of which nearly 19 000 are endemic, making it the richest region in the world in terms of species to area - 1.7 times richer even than Brazil.
*It is home to more kinds of mammals than North and South America combined; or Europe and Asia together.
*Table Mountain in Cape Town is one of the seven wonders of the geological world. Table Mountain can be seen as far as 200 kilometres out to sea.
*Paarl is South Africa's is home to KWV Cellars- the largest wine cellar in the world (covering 22 hectares).
*Kimberley's 'Big Hole' is the largest hand-dug hole in the world.
*Mpumalanga province is home to the Blyderiver Canyon, the 3rd largest canyon in the world.
*The Tugela Falls in KwaZulu Natal, at 948m (3110ft), is the 2nd highest waterfall in the world.
*The world's best land-based whale-watching spot is located in Hermanus.
*Fossilized footprints were found at Langebaan Lagoon, Western Cape, in a sand-dune-turned-rock. The 117,000 year-old fossils are the oldest known footprints of an anatomically modern human.
*The Sterkfontein Caves, in Gauteng, is the site where the oldest human skeletal remains were found in the world (3,5 million years old). This is the place where the human race was born!
*The 2,02 billion year-old crater in Vredefort is the oldest known crater on Earth. The general estimate of its original diameter is roughly 300 km, which makes it the largest crater on the planet, as well.
*The small town of Sutherland boasts the worlds best Star gazing facility with open skies and unlimited views of starts and planets.

Source:SA-Networkin Dallas...enjoy!