table mountain.

No trip to Cape Town, or indeed Southern Africa, can be complete without experiencing the unforgettable panorama seen from the top of Table Mountain. Seasoned travelers will tell you this view rivals anything they have seen anywhere else across the globe. Do not leave Cape Town without going up Table Mountain!

visitors |cableway.

	To date the Cableway has transported more than 18 million passengers to the summit.
	800 000 visitors from all over the world use the Cableway annually.
	Even with so many visitors, queuing time is minimal due to the new upgraded system.

about | cable cars.

	The 65 passenger cable car runs from Tafelberg Road to the top of Table Mountain. The floor rotates giving everyone a 360 degree view on the way up.
	The cable car was imported from Switzerland and there are only 2 other such cable cars in the world, one in Titlis in the Swiss Alps in Switzerland, and one in Palm Springs in America.
	The cable cars take about 5-10 minutes to reach the top of the mountain and they travel at a speed of up to 10 meters per second.
	The cable cars can carry a maximum weight of 5200 kg and works on a counter weight system weighing 134 tonnes each.
	The length of the cables are 1200m
	The cables weigh 18 tonnes.
	The height of Table Mountain at its highest point is 1085m.
	The round cable car offers excellent aerodynamics in Cape Town’s famous strong South Easter winds.
	The base of the cable car is in fact a water tank that can carry up to 4000 litres of fresh water used to ballast during the windy season, they also supply fresh water for visitors.

table mountain | new7wonders

As the Cape’s premier tourist attraction, Table Mountain may now be set to achieve everlasting fame by being listed as one of the seven natural wonders of the world – but it needs your help to do so.

The iconic flat topped mountain has been selected as South Africa’s representative in a campaign organised by Swiss based New7Wonders Foundation to choose the world’s top seven natural wonders from 222 countries.

To find out more, visit www.new7wonders.com, and click on Table Mountain to cast your vote.

FACT:
The cable cars take about 4-5 minutes to reach the top of the mountain and they travel at a speed of up to 10 meters per second.

Table Mountain

history | cableway.

Since the first person laid eyes on Table Mountain, it has exerted its powerful and charismatic pull, enchanting and drawing any and all who fall under its spell.

The way to the top has never been easy, and for many centuries only a handful of bold and enterprising people could say that they had climbed it.

By the late 1870's, several of Cape Town's more prominent (and possibly less fit) citizens had suggested the introduction of a railway line to the top. Plans to implement a proposed rack railway got under way but the outbreak of the Anglo-Boer war put a halt to the plans.
By 1912, with a strong desire to gain easy access to the top of Table Mountain, the Cape Town City Council commissioned an engineer to investigate the various options for public transport to the top.

The engineer, a Mr. H.M. Peter, suggested that a funicular railway running up from Oranjezicht through Platteklip Gorge would be the most suitable option. A vote was held with the vast majority of Cape Town's residents voting in favour of the funicular. This, in spite of its cost, a staggering (in 1913) £100,000. The project was delayed yet again by war; this time the outbreak of the First World War (1914 - 1918).

The plan was resuscitated in 1926 after a Norwegian engineer, Trygve Stromsoe, presented plans for a Cableway. The plan caught the collective eye of a group of eminent local businessmen. The idea that an easy route up would finally become a reality drew them together, forming the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway Company (TMACC) to finance the construction. Work began soon afterwards and the project was finished relatively quickly.