With a focus on Heritage Month, Table Mountain’s Cableway stands ready to welcome you and tourists alike to celebrate one of the world’s seven wonders.
There’s so many reason that give Table Mountain bragging rights to be one of the seven wonders of nature.
Also read: Get your cameras ready, Table Mountain Cableway is reopening!
The iconic mountain is estimated to be over 200 million years old with some rocks around the base estimated at 500 million years old. It has helped shape Cape Town and South Africa’s history, tracing some of its roots back to the Stone Age.
Now we can once again, get ready to explore and enjoy this majestic mountain along with our beautiful country’s rich tourism heritage more freely. With an abuzz this Heritage Month as heritage month is also Tourism Month!
She says the Cableway is ready to welcome people back to one of the country’s most iconic tourism and heritage sites.
“We recently finished our annual maintenance, which saw all operations being shut down for five weeks. During this time, work focused on the cable cars themselves while there was also work carried out to improve the visitor experience. The work helped ensure that anyone that visits the beloved mountain can have a great time and that their memory of the visit is a positive one,” said Parker.
The TMACC team knows the huge kind of responsibility that rests upon their shoulders as an operator in such a rich natural setting.
“We play an important role as a steward of this timeless and world-renowned iconic landmark,” she adds.
Also read: Table Mountain wins ‘Best Viewpoint in Africa’, reveals study
This UNESCO World Heritage Site is steeped in rich history and symbolism. To the indigenous people of the Cape, the Khoisan, Table Mountain was known as Hoerikwaggo, meaning ‘mountain in the sea’.
Table Mountain is a leading tourist attraction that draws countless international tourists, local visitors, and hiking groups to it, forming part of the Table Mountain National Park and one of the New Seven Wonders of Nature.
“Table Mountain belongs to everyone and should act as a reminder for all of us to celebrate our heritage as a nation – one that is filled with culture, tradition, and diversity,” says Parker.
Before the cableway was built, the only way up Cape Town’s iconic mountain was by foot – a climb undertaken only by adventurous souls. By the late 1870s, many of Cape Town’s more prominent citizens had suggested the introduction of a railway to the top.
“The plan was initially to build a funicular railway to the top. The arrival of the First World War put a spanner in those plans, which later changed to a cable-car type service such as the one we see in operation today. The first cars started operating more than 90 years ago. To this very day, we take pride in offering visitors a view and an experience of a lifetime,” says Parker.
As we welcome visitors back to our country and the Mother City, the TMACC team are excited to see people come back and explore the magnificence that the mountain has to offer.
“Table Mountain is part of who we are as a nation – it is part of all our heritage,”concludes Parker.
Also read:
Picture: Table Mountain Aerial Cableway/Supplied