Johannesburg is huge and some of the city center is enjoying a revival. The City Hall and the Newtown Cultural Precinct has been completely modernized. The streets have been freshened up with stylish lighting, paving, and small wooden sculptures on concrete pedestals.
Johannesburg has its share of pleasant parks and nature reserves necking the outskirts of the city.
With the discovery of gold in 1886, gold diggers, speculators and fortune hunters arrived in swarms in Johannesburg. The company of different people and motives, has made Johannesburg the main commercial center.
the Witwatersrand gold mines attracted large numbers of black laborers who were housed in compounds on the mines. Company, and municipal hostels, housed migrant workers for other industries while some, such as domestic workers, resided at their places of work.
But there were also many people who were foreigners. Their limited voting rights, led to the outbreak of the Anglo Boer War.
the Johannesburg Fort is a national monument. Constructed in the 1890s to the specifications of Colonel A.H. Schiel, a German soldier serving the South African Republic, the fort was originally an armed fort intended to keep the peace amongst Johannesburg's early mining population.
The Johannesburg Fort, was surrendered to the English during the Anglo Boer War. The Fort was the only major, military structure built in Johannesburg by the Transvaal Republic. It was designed to control, not protect, the rebellious mining town and it was surrendered without a shot being fired. The battlements offer commanding views of the city and its gold mines, which caused the War
After the Anglo-Boer War the Johannesburg Fort was converted into a penal institution, although it no longer functions in this capacity. Unfortunately, the fort is not open to the public but The Parktown and Westcliff Heritage Trust occasionally conduct guided tours.
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