Interesting unknown facts about South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is known as the “Rainbow Nation” because it is dubbed one of the most diverse countries in the world. South Africa has 11 official languages and 8 other recognized languages. Each language is accompanied by a very diverse and unique culture and people. There is no other country in the world with so many diversified cultures and languages thereby creating a very multi-ethnic and multicultural society.

You might only know South Africa because it has one of the seven wonders of the world, Table Mountain which is located in the beautiful city of Cape Town; or being the birth country of the great Nelson Mandela; and for being a country with a very high murder rate. It shouldn’t come as a great surprise that there is much more to South African than Table Mountain, Nelson Mandela, and the high crime murder.

Here are some facts you might not have known about South Africa: 

• South African Doctor Christian Barnard performed the first ever heart transplant at the Groote Schuur Hospital in 1967. He further to that performed the first heart/lung transplant. An interesting fact about the donor is that fact that this procedure was performed during the height of apartheid and the donor was white whilst the recipient was black which was very controversial at the time.

 

• The Tugela Falls in South Africa are the second highest waterfall after the Angel Falls in Venezuela. 

 

• If you love fossils you will love this fact, one of the best living fossil examples was found in South Africa in 1938, the Coelacanth which is a fish that had been extinct since the Devonian period.

 

• Another interesting fact about South Africa is that in 1879; 1,400 British Troops armed with guns was defeated by 30 000 Zulu warriors who were mainly armed with spears and shields.

 

• You can find two restaurants that were ranked as one of the top 100 restaurants in the world: The Le Quartier Francais located Franschhoek and also the La Colombe which is located in Constantia, Cape Town.

 

• It has been recorded that every year South Africa inches farther and farther away from South America.

 

• There is a circular stone structure that is called the Adams Calendar which was found in Mpumalanga in 2005. When this stone structure was found, it was found intact and still very much functional. Which means South Africa has a 750 000-year-old functional monolithic stone calendar. 

 

• The Bloukrans Bridge coming in at 709ft is the highest commercial natural bungee jump in the world and is located in Western Cape. 

 

• In a 2010 study, Mercer Huma Resources ranked Cape Town and Johannesburg as 86th and 90th respectively in the top 100 Most liveable Cities.

 

• The first elected President in a fully representative democratic election, Nelson Mandela is also known by six different names within South Africa: Rolihlahla Mandela; Dalibhunga (creator or founder of the council); Tata or Khulu which are Xhosa words for ‘father’ and ‘grandfather’ and Madiba.