Witwatersrand Botanical Gardens
The botanical gardens make up Johannesburg's largest and most magnificent park, whose major attraction is a pair of rare black eagles who have nested for years on a koppie alongside a waterfall

Klipriviersberg Nature Reserve is 11 kilometres south of the city and consists of an unspoilt 680-hectare stretch of open veld and koppies, filled with 150 species of birds and around 650 types of indigenous plants and trees.

Melville Koppies, a 60-hectare nature reserve barely five kilometres from the city centre, offers the visitor indigenous veld and shrubs, twittering birds and a natural quietness.

The 81-hectare Botanic Gardens house one of South Africa's finest succulent collections, in addition to wide open green spaces, sparkling dams, roses, herbs, birds and tees galore ...

The Hector Pieterson Museum gives insight into the uprisings of 16 June, 1976, when Hector was shot by the police in what led to nationwide riots and clampdowns. Also see other museums.

Kliptown Square, the site of the signing of the Freedom Charter 47 years ago, is to be developed and renamed the Walter Sisulu Square, with a museum and monument.

Alexandra, a sprawling ghetto township of some 350 000 people north-east of the city centre, is in the process of getting a facelift in the Alexandra Renewal Project.

Soweto's box houses have some famous owners in Vilakazi Street, in the suburb of Orlando West where the Soweto uprisings began - Nelson and Winnie Mandela, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

The Old Fort, built in 1899 and just north of the city centre, housed many resistance leaders, among them Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. The Fort is about to undergo a transformation, to be incorporated into the new Constitutional Court.

Liliesleaf farm is where the key leaders of the armed wing of the banned ANC operated for two years, until the police swooped on 11 July 1963 and arrested the farm's occupants.

MuseumAfrica, situated in what used to be the city's fruit and vegetable market, has an impressive exhibition capturing the 1956 Treason Trial and a permanent rock art display. The Market Theatre is located at the east end of the building. See other museums and theatres.

The Apartheid Museum takes the visitor on a voyage of terror and repression in an extraordinarily powerful display of how apartheid worked. Also see other museums.

Gold Reef City, some six kilometres south of the city, consists of a historical village, casino, pleasureland, and an underground pub 226 metres down the main shaft 14.

The city has dozens of great art galleries, as well as "artists under the sun", local artists selling their art on the first weekend of every month, at Zoo Lake. The city has several excellent flea markets.

There are guided township tours of the two oldest townships in the city, Alexandra and Soweto, where you'll experience shebeens, craft markets, muti shops and township life.

The Johannesburg Zoo has 3 000 animals to marvel at and offers a range of tours, the nighttime one being a favourite with visitors.

Bird Gardens, about 20 kilometres north of the city centre, has some 200 species of birds and over 1 500 species of small animals, with a feature being its walk-in aviary containing 100 species of birds.