Vredefort Dome to be protected

Celebrations erupted at Cape Town's V&A Waterfront on Friday night as Table Mountain was provisionally named a New 7 Wonder of Nature following a three-year global race to choose the world's seven most wonderful natural sites.

South Africa occupies the southern tip of Africa, its long coastline stretching more than 2 500km from the desert border with Namibia on the Atlantic coast, southwards around the tip of Africa, then north to the border with subtropical Mozambique on the Indian Ocean.

South Africa and its provinces, regions, cities and suburbs. Tourist accommodation and recreation venues. Get the big picture – then zoom in close and get the details – with a range of excellent mapping websites.

SA has the third-highest level of biodiversity in the world, and is the only country to contain an entire floral kingdom. The Cape Peninsula National Park has more plant species within its 22 000 hectares than the whole British Isles or New Zealand.

Tourists flock to Cape Point every year to witness the beautiful scenery and the point where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet. Residents of Cape Agulhas, however, argue that visitors wanting to see the confluence of the two oceans will have to travel a little further east and south ...

The uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park has outstanding natural beauty, Africa's highest mountain range south of Kilimanjaro, a fascinating and ancient geology, some of the rarest animals in the world - and the largest series of rock art in Africa.