Constitution Hill represents South Africa’s dark past and its bright post-apartheid future. Johannesburg’s most notorious historic prisons (all of them now museums) sit side by side with the home of the Constitutional Court, a symbol of South Africa’s triumphant democracy. The site is located on the ridge between two city neighbourhoods, Hillbrow and Braamfontein, overlooking central Johannesburg.... Historical background Before Constitutional Hill opened its doors as a museum in 2004, the precinct housed a collection of notorious prisons which included the Old Fort, a high-security prison built in the 1890s to house prisoners of war during the Anglo-Boer Wars (1899-1902), the Number Four prison block, a so-called “Native Prison”, and the Women’s Gaol. During the apartheid era the prison complex became a detention centre for political dissidents, striking mineworkers, those deemed “anti-establishment” and those who simply violated the inhuman pass laws of the time. Many ordinary and famous people were incarcerated here during its years as a prison including former president Nelson Mandela and passive resistance leader Mahatma Gandhi, who were both imprisoned for their pro-democracy activism.

Entrepreneur Jonathan Liebmann bought up dozens of rundown industrial warehouses and factories on the eastern edge of the inner­ city and set about transforming them. He was inspired by his travels to other cities where he had enjoyed the vibrancy of 24/7 urban life The name Maboneng is a Sotho word meaning “place of light”, and the growing precinct aims to transform an area that was once blighted by urban decay and crime into a safe, happening and inspiring place to live, work and play. Frequently compared with trendy, rejuvenated neighbourhoods such as London’s Shoreditch or New York’s Brooklyn, this pioneering precinct draws the inner-city public, as well as the chic, outgoing and party­loving crowds of the city’s northern suburbs. Best Place to be...(Sunday)

Apartheid museum the first of its kind, illustrates the rise and fall of apartheid...

A stamp battery, or stamp mill, was a piece of equipment used to crush gold-bearing rock brought from underground.

Diepkloof Extension Upper Class Diepkloof is also characterized by Hostels, which were Built to House large numbers of single male migrant workers.

Cooling towers make for one of the world’s most epic bungee jumps.

Vilakazi Street may be the only street in the world that can claim to have had two Nobel Laureates as residents - the late Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu. The true electricity of this street comes from those who now call it home, each with their own beautiful stories.

8115 Vilakazi Street, Soweto, is a small, face-brick house where the Mandela family lived from 1946 to the 1990s. Today the house is a museum celebrating his life through artwork

Commemorates 12-year-old Hector’s ultimate sacrifice on June 16, the first child to die by a police bullet. He is buried in Avalon Cemetery, where many of apartheid’s victims are buried.