Company's Gardens
Garden/Arboretum, Cape Town Central
These are all that remains of a 43-acre garden laid
out by Jan van Riebeeck in April 1652 to supply fresh vegetables to ships
on their way to the Dutch East Indies. By 1700 free burghers were
cultivating plenty of crops on their own land, and in time the VOC
vegetable patch was transformed into a botanic garden. It remains a
delightful haven in the city center, graced by fountains, exotic trees,
rose gardens, aviaries, and a pleasant outdoor café. At the bottom of the
gardens, close to Government Avenue, look for an
old well
that used to provide water for the town's residents and the garden. The
old water pump, engraved with the maker's name and the date 1842, has been
overtaken by an oak tree and now juts out of the tree's trunk some 6 feet
above the ground. A hugestatue of
Cecil Rhodes, the Cape's prime minister in the late 19th century,
looms over the path that runs through the center of the gardens. He points
to the north, and an inscription reads, your hinterland is there, a
reference to Rhodes's dream of extending the British Empire from the Cape
to Cairo. COST: Free. OPEN:
Daily 7-7.
