Johannesburg

Johannesburg Travel Guide

Johannesburg is the center of a vast urban industrial complex that covers most of the province of Gauteng, which is Sotho for "place where the gold is." But more than 100 years ago it was just a rocky piece of unwanted Highveld land. It remained so until gold was officially discovered in 1886 by an Australian, George Harrison. The discovery allowed Johannesburg to become a modern metropolis that still powers the country's economy; it produces nearly 20% of the country's wealth. Its population, about 3.2 million, is mostly young, and despite being a commercial center, Johannesburg is a green city, with more than 10 million trees, and parks and nature reserves that hug the outskirts of the city.