Grahamstown

Grahamstown is set in a warm hollow amidst the hills of the Eastern Cape. The town has acquired many names over the years; 'City of Saints' due to its more than 40 places of worship (the most notable of which is the magnificent St George's Cathedral); 'City of Schools' for its fine educational establishments such as the famous Rhodes University; and 'City of Settlers' due to the many frontier wars fought here with the Xhosa.

The Xhosas suffered a terrible self-imposed fate when their 14 year old prophetess Nongqause urged her people to burn their crops and kill all their cattle, in return for which they would be free of the white settlers. Their deliverance never came, and thousands of Xhosa's died of starvation.

In the early 1800s Grahamstown was a bustling town of ivory traders, big game hunters and soldiers thronging the streets. Today the streets still hum with activity, but mostly during the June/July National Arts Festival, when Grahamstown comes alive with artistes, market stalls, performers and visitors.

The most bizarre thing you might see in Grahamstown outside festival time is the pre-historic Coelacanth, a fish caught off the east coast of Africa which was thought to have been extinct for more than 80 million years!

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