Accommodation South Africa Table Mountain

Table Mountain is the centrepiece of the Table Mountain National Park. Covering only 17,000 ha, this small area supports some 2,285 plant species of which at least 90 are found only on the Peninsula, and is part of the Cape Floral Region World Heritage Site.

The most usual (and easiest) way of visiting Table Mountain is to ride up in the Cable Car, which operates every day, except in bad weather conditions. But it's a great walk, either up, down or both ways. Platteklip Gorge, just east of the Cable Station, is a good one, as you can walk one way and take the cable car the other. Skeleton Gorge and Nursery Ravine, both of which start in Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens, are also easy walks.

The main feature of Table Mountain is a level plateau approximately 3 kilometres from side to side, surrounded by steep cliffs. The plateau, flanked by Devil's Peak to the east and by Lion's Head to the west, forms a dramatic backdrop to Cape Town and its Table Bay harbour and together with Signal Hill form the natural amphitheatre of the City Bowl.

The highest point on Table Mountain is towards the eastern end of the plateau and is marked by Maclear's Beacon, a stone cairn built in 1865 by Sir Thomas Maclear for trigonometrical survey. It is 1086 metres above sea level, about 19 metres higher than the cable station at the western end of the plateau.

The cliffs of the main plateau are split by Platteklip Gorge, which provides an easy and direct ascent to the summit and was the route taken by Antonio de Saldanha on the first recorded ascent of the mountain in 1503. The flat top of the mountain is often covered by clouds or fog spilling over the top to form the "table cloth".

Table Mountain is at the northern end of a sandstone mountain range that forms the spine of the Cape Peninsula. To the south of the main plateau is a lower part of the range called the Back Table. On the Atlantic coast of the peninsula, the range is known as the Twelve Apostles. The range continues southwards to Cape Point.