Victoria & Alfred Waterfront
Cape Town
South Africa
2016

Victoria and Albert Waterfront in Cape Town South Africa with famous Table Mountain in the background

The waterfront is named after Prince Alfred, who began construction on the harbour in 1860, and his mother Queen Victoria. The V&A Waterfront encompasses 22 landmarks, including the Chavonnes Battery Museum, which dates back to 1725 and is the harbour's oldest heritage site.

Officially the Republic of South Africa, a nation at the southern tip of Africa spanning the Cape of Good Hope where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Indian Ocean. It is bordered by Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe to the north, and Mozambique to the northeast.


The mountain is rich in diverse wildlife, including the rock hyrax and a rare species of frog aptly named the Table Mountain Ghost Frog as it can only be found in this area. Table Mountain is perhaps best known for its flat top which, because it resembles a table top, has garnered the mountain its now famous name.

Table Mountain joined the Amazon rainforest, Vietnam's Halong Bay, Argentina's Iguazu Falls, South Korea's Jeju Island, Indonesia's Komodo and the Philippines' Puerto Princesa Underground River as the newly listed wonders.

The mountain was sacred for the Khoi and San people as they believed their god (Tsui or Goab) lived there. The first European to see the Cape was Bartolomeu Dias in 1448. In 1497, Vasco da Gama spotted it as well.