There are taller mountains, but few are as instantly recognisable as Table Mountain. Its perfectly level summit, cut as if with a ruler more than a thousand metres above Cape Town, is the image that sums up South Africa in a single postcard. When the south-easterly wind pushes moisture in from the sea, a layer of cloud spills over the edge of the plateau like a white cloth sliding off a table: the famous 'tablecloth', one of the most beautiful natural sights in the country.
But the Table is more than a viewpoint. It is an ecosystem unlike any other in the world: its slopes hold more plant species than the whole of the United Kingdom, most of them endemic fynbos — proteas, ericas, restios — that grows nowhere else. That is why it belongs to the Cape Floral Kingdom, the smallest and richest of the planet's six floral kingdoms, a World Heritage Site. Going up means getting a close look at that biodiversity and, at the same time, a 360-degree view over two oceans, the city, the vineyards and Robben Island.
The easiest way up is the rotating cableway, whose cars spin around during the ascent so everyone gets the full panorama. Hikers climb via Platteklip Gorge or on longer, wilder routes. Up top there are easy trails, a café and viewpoints. It is without doubt the number-one experience in Cape Town, as long as the weather cooperates: when there's strong wind or fog, the mountain closes and you'll have to wait for another day.
The Khoikhoi called it Hoerikwaggo, 'the mountain in the sea'. Fifteenth-century Portuguese navigators used it as a landmark, and one captain named it 'Taboa do Cabo' (table of the cape). The cableway has been running since 1929. In 2011 it was named one of the New7Wonders of Nature. More on the Cape Town history page.
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Origins, formation and what the sources say.
Before it had a European name, the mountain was already sacred. The Khoikhoi, herders who had lived on the peninsula for thousands of years, called it Hoerikwaggo, usually translated as 'the mountain in the sea'. For them it was more than a landform: it was a landmark, a source of water (the streams running down from the plateau supplied people and livestock) and a place with deep spiritual meaning. For centuries, the flat-topped massif we now see crowned with cloud was the heart of Khoisan territory.
Geologically, Table Mountain is very old. Its plateau is made mostly of Table Mountain sandstone, laid down some 450 million years ago on a base of even older granite and shale. That hard sandstone held out against erosion while the rest of the landscape wore away, which left the summit flat, as if cut like a table. It is one of the oldest mountains on the planet, far older than the Alps or the Himalayas. On that acidic, nutrient-poor rock a unique plant life evolved, the fynbos, which would make the mountain a botanical treasure of world importance.
When Portuguese navigators began rounding the tip of Africa in the late 15th century in search of the route to India, the flat mountain became their great visual landmark. It was impossible to mistake, and it marked the entrance to Table Bay. The first recorded ascent was made in 1503 by the Portuguese navigator António de Saldanha, who climbed the gorge now known as Platteklip Gorge to get his bearings and see the bay from above. He is said to have named it 'Taboa do Cabo', the table of the cape, a name that passed into European languages as Table Mountain, Tafelberg (in Dutch) and Montaña de la Mesa.
The surrounding features got their names too: the conical peak to the west became Lion's Head, the ridge next to it Lion's Rump (today Signal Hill), and the peak to the east Devil's Peak. A popular legend tied to Devil's Peak explains the 'tablecloth' of cloud. A retired Dutch pirate called Van Hunks supposedly held a pipe-smoking contest with the devil on its slopes, and the smoke from their duel is the cloud that spills over the edge of the plateau when the south-easterly wind blows. Science has another explanation (moist air that cools and condenses as it rises over the mountain), but the legend lives on.
When Jan van Riebeeck founded the Dutch East India Company's station at the foot of the mountain in 1652, the mountain came to dominate life in the new colony. Streams from its slopes watered the Company's garden, its original forests were cut down for firewood and timber, and for generations of sailors and settlers its outline was the first sign that they had reached the Cape after months at sea. On Signal Hill, the ridge beside Lion's Head, a cannon was set up to fire at midday (the Noon Gun, which still goes off), along with flags for signalling to ships in the bay.
Over time, the mountain stopped being just a resource and became an emblem. It appears on the coat of arms of the city and of the former colony, on stamps, in 19th-century Romantic paintings and in countless photographs. As Cape Town grew, its slopes were gradually protected from urban sprawl. Forests were planted (some with exotic species that are now being removed as invasive), the first trails were opened and mountaineering caught on. The mountain became the natural backyard of a city growing at its feet, a place where people went up to walk, to pray and to look at the world from above.
For centuries, reaching the plateau took strong legs and lungs. That changed on 4 October 1929, when the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway opened, linking the base with the summit. It was a pioneering project for its time: getting cables, motors and stations more than a thousand metres up steep terrain was a huge engineering feat. Suddenly the summit was within anyone's reach, and the mountain became one of the great tourist attractions of the southern hemisphere.
The cableway was modernised several times. The biggest change came in 1997, when the current Swiss rotating cabins were installed. Their floors make a full turn during the ascent so every passenger gets the view, and each one carries 65 people per trip. Since it opened, the system has carried tens of millions of visitors. For all the comfort of the cable car, the mountain never stopped being a sporting challenge: hundreds of climbing routes and trails have been opened on its walls, and it still draws mountaineers from all over the world. Its treacherous terrain and changeable weather have also cost lives, a reminder that it is still a real mountain.
In democratic South Africa, protection of the mountain took a big step forward. In 1998 Table Mountain National Park was created (now managed by SANParks). It is not limited to the massif you can see from the city: it stretches across a patchwork of protected land all over the peninsula, from Signal Hill to the Cape of Good Hope and the Boulders penguin colony. The goal was twofold: to preserve an iconic landscape and, above all, to protect one of the greatest concentrations of plant biodiversity on the planet.
Above all, Table Mountain is a botanical sanctuary. It is home to more than 2,200 plant species (more than the whole of Great Britain), most of them fynbos endemic to the Cape Floral Kingdom, the smallest but richest of the world's six floral kingdoms. In 2004 these areas were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site under the name 'Cape Floral Region Protected Areas'. And in 2011, after a worldwide vote, Table Mountain was named one of the New Seven Wonders of Nature, alongside the Amazon, Ha Long Bay and the Iguazú Falls. Today nearly a million people go up to its summit every year. For visitors it offers an unmatched view over two oceans; for Cape Town it is its lasting symbol; and for science it is a living laboratory of plant evolution that keeps turning up new species. The mountain the Khoikhoi called 'the mountain in the sea' still watches over life at its feet.
