Johannesburg

Tickets are handed out at random and send each visitor through a separate racial entrance. That brief experience sets the subject before anything else is seen.

Two Nobel laureates lived on the same street in this township. A hired bicycle carries visitors through the lanes past murals and markets.

The constitutional court was built on the site of an old prison and the two stand together. Bricks from the prison were reused in the walls of the court.

Empty warehouse buildings were converted into studios and shops. A market runs at the weekend and the roofs open for a view of the centre.

Limestone caves in this area have yielded a great many early human fossils. Part of the underground route is covered by boat.

Lion and wild dog live in a large reserve forty minutes from town. Entry is by vehicle and the windows have to stay shut.

Level 50 of what was long the tallest building in Africa serves as the deck. Glass on all sides shows the plateau spread out.

A pair of black eagles has nested for years on the cliff beside the waterfall. A telescope is set up so the nest can be watched.

A cage drops 220 metres underground to the workings where gold was cut. Above, the pouring of molten gold into a bar is demonstrated.

An old produce market building became a theatre and still stages work. A photography gallery and a jazz bar sit beside it.

A museum for Hector Pieterson, the boy of twelve shot by police in the student protest of 16 June 1976. One photo of him carried, dying, told the whole world about apartheid. The spot where he fell is two blocks from the museum, close enough to walk.

A plaza among Sandton's malls where a 6-metre bronze of Mandela has stood since 2004. It catches him mid-shuffle in his trademark dance. Restaurant terraces ring the square, so a photo and a meal happen in one stop.

The thatched house Gandhi shared with the architect Kallenbach during his years as a lawyer here. Its name honours the non-violent resistance he shaped there; rooms hang photos and writings from those years. It doubles as a guesthouse, so you can sleep over.

Built on the Kliptown field where thousands adopted the Freedom Charter on 26 June 1955. The ten clauses are carved inside a cone-shaped monument. Across the railway beside it lies the old shack settlement, best seen with a local guide.

A stadium clad in earthy panels shaped like an African calabash pot, host of the 2010 World Cup final. That final was also the last public appearance Mandela made. With over 90,000 seats it counts as the largest stadium in Africa.