Description

Essentials about the Rhodes Memorial in brief

The Rhodes Memorial, created in 1912, is a monument honoring the British South African politician, entrepreneur and colonialist Cecil John Rhodes. It is located on the lower slopes of Devil’s Peak on the east side of Table Mountain and is a popular vantage point and excursion spot for both tourists and Capetonians themselves. Rhodes Monument is now part of Table Mountain National Park. The most famous climb up Devil’s Peak starts from here.

The story of Cecil Rhodes

Cecil Rhodes himself came from the United Kingdom to the then Cape Republic as a young man to find a cure from tuberculosis. Just one year after his arrival, the diamond rush began in Kimberley. Rhodes was able to secure properties and made a huge fortune from diamonds he found. In 1890 he became prime minister of what would later become South Africa and was also successfully involved in other gold discoveries around Johannesburg. With his own companies, he penetrated areas between the Limpopo and Zambezi rivers that had previously only been settled by black Africans, in search of raw materials and settlement land. His ventures considerably increased the area of the British Empire – the annexed territory gave rise to Rhodesia, named after him (which today is divided into Zambia in the north and Zimbabwe in the south).

The architecture of the Rhodes Memorial

Rhodes owned a lot of land on the lower slopes of Table Mountain, which he bequeathed to the state after his death in 1902. Parts of his land were used for the University of Cape Town campus, and another part for the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. The monument, created by the famous architect Sir Herbert Baker, took as its model the Greek temples of Segesta and Pergamon respectively. It consists of a monumental staircase of 49 steps (one for each year of Rhodes’ life) leading up a semicircular terrace to a U-shaped portico. The monument was created from granite from the Table Mountain massif.

At the foot of the stairs is a bronze statue of a horseman named Physical Energy by George Frederic Watts. Eight bronze lions by John Macallan Swan stroll up the stairs to the monument, which features a bust of Cecil Rhodes, also by Swan. Incidentally, Rhodes’ own wooden bench, from which he enjoyed the magnificent view, is still at the foot of the monument. Here, the imperialist dreamed of a British-colonial Africa that stretched from Cape Town to Cairo and of which Rhodes was the greatest advocate.

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Admission fees

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Address

Getting there

By public transport:

No connections.

By car:

There is a parking lot on site.