Pretoria

Government offices designed by Herbert Baker and finished in 1913; in 1994 Mandela took the presidential oath in their amphitheatre. The building is off limits, but the terraced gardens can be walked. An open-armed Mandela statue stands before the gardens.

A granite monument completed in 1949 to the Great Trek of Dutch-descended settlers into the interior. Every 16 December at noon, sun entering an opening in the dome lands exactly on the words of the cenotaph below. Stairs climb to a lookout at the top.

A memorial park on Salvokop hill facing the Voortrekker Monument, its long wall bearing the names of those who died in South Africa's conflicts. The two tell different histories, so many people see both on the same day. Guided tours leave at set times.

The old central square with a statue of Paul Kruger, president of the Transvaal republic, in the middle. In the court building on its edge Mandela stood trial from 1963. It is busy by day but empties after sunset, so look around while it is light.

Jacarandas brought from South America flower around October and roof the streets in purple. Students say that a flower landing on your head means you will pass your exams. Asking locals is the quickest way to find the most heavily blooming streets.

The home of Transvaal president Paul Kruger, preserved as a museum. A pair of stone lions, given as a gift, sits at the front steps. The presidential railway carriage he used stands in the back yard and can be looked into.

A quartzite ridge splits the garden north from south, so the sunny face and the shaded face grow different plants. The path up the ridge gives a view of the city. Broad lawns draw many families with picnic rugs at weekends.

A Victorian mansion in whose dining room the Treaty of Vereeniging, ending the Boer War, was signed in 1902. The signing table is still in place. During the war the British commander used the house as his quarters.

In 1905 the largest gem-quality rough diamond ever found came out of this mine, and stones cut from it sit in the British crown jewels. About 40km east of Pretoria lies the village lined with old miners' cottages. Underground tours must be booked ahead.

The mansion built in the 1880s by Sammy Marks, an industrialist close to Kruger, with period furniture and household things still in every room. A guide must lead anyone going indoors. People wait for the tour over tea in the garden tea room.

Opened in 1899, South Africa's biggest zoo lies on a riverbank just north of downtown. Besides African animals it keeps an aquarium and a reptile house. The grounds are large and hilly, so seeing it all needs comfortable shoes and half a day.

Proclaimed by President Kruger in 1895 and reckoned the first game reserve in Africa. Zebra, giraffe and antelope graze the hills at the city's southern edge. You can walk or mountain-bike through it, which has made it a weekend workout spot.

A fig tree reputedly more than a millennium old, whose branches touched the ground and rooted into rings of new trunks. One tree has become a small grove you walk into for shade. On the hill in the same reserve stand the ruins of a Boer War fort.

A meteorite crater over 1 kilometre wide, punched out hundreds of thousands of years ago, with a salt lake on its floor. Pretoria to the crater is roughly an hour north-west by car. A path follows the rim and then drops to the floor, a good half-day walk.

A natural history museum across from City Hall, its halls filled with dinosaur bones and mounted animals. It holds Mrs Ples, an early human skull from the Cradle of Humankind caves. A separate bird hall lets you compare the country's birds side by side.