Kimberley is a prospecting city famous for its quality diamonds, the largest man-made excavation in the world and impressive variety of tourists attractions

It is the capital city of the Northern Cape and surrounded by five of South Africa's big rivers, two of them being the Orange and Vaal Rivers.

Kimberley haves an average of 9.4 hours of sunshine per day throughout the year and receive an annual rainfall of about 450 mm Kimberley is situated almost in the centre of South Africa between Cape Town and Johannesburg.

Surrounding Kimberley are many memorials and sites of some important battles of the Anglo-Boer war, most notably the Siege of Kimberley in 1899 with the famous "Long Cecil" on display, and the battlefield site of Magersfontein where Boer General used trench warfare for the first time.

The city boasts other firsts like the first city in the Southern Hemisphere to install electric street lighting and the first city in South Africa to switch to an automatic exchanges, and it housed the country's first Stock Exchange.

Kimberley tram service operates daily between 09:00 and 16:15 carrying visitors between the City Hall and the Big Hole and Kimberly Mine Museum. En route visitors are treated to some of the city's historical and noteworthy sites, while the tram also stops outside the Star of the West, the oldest pub in Kimberley.

Places of interest

Museums and Historic Places - a trendsetter in many ways, various memorials and national monuments in Kimberley remind us of historic firsts.

Africana Library - containing missionery Robert Moffat's personal copy of his seTswana translation of the Bible, the library is a rich repository of memorabilia portraying life in the Northern Cape.

Art Gallery in the Kimberley Mine Museum, it contains a set of De Beers-commissioned watercolours depicting Victorian life in Kimberley

Belgravia - The oldest, exclusively residential suburb features architecture from 1873 to today.

Cathedral Church of St Cyprian - has the longest nave in the country.

Duggan Cronin Galley - Depicting indigenous cultures and lifestyles, some 8 000 photographs taken by Irishman AM Duggan Cronin form the core of this invaluable ethnographic collection.

Dunluce - and elegant home built in 1897 for Gustav Bonas and John Orr's family home from 1902 to 1975.

Market Square - Kimberley was developed around this square, formerly the main trading area for the dry diggings.

Rhodes's Statue - Kimberley citizens knew him, astride his horse, a map of Africa on his lap.

Square Hill Memorial - Built to honour those of the Cape Crops, who lost their lives in the Battle of Square Hill, Palestine during the First World War.

Star of the West - formerly an hotel and today South Africa's oldest continuously operating bar, it houses CJ Rhodes's custom-made barstool.

Synagogue - a building in Byzantine Style.

William Humphreys Art Gallery - one of the most important galleries in the country, housing a representative collection of South African works, 16th and 17th century Flemish and Dutch Old Masters, and British and European Masters.