South Africa’s oldest museum may be showing its age, but it does contain a wide and often intriguing series of exhibitions, many on the country’s natural history. The best galleries are the newest, showcasing the art and culture of the area’s first peoples, the Khoekhoen and San, and including the famous Linton Panel, an amazing example of San rock art. There’s an extraordinary delicacy to the paintings, particularly the ones of graceful elands.
Also worth looking out for are the the terracotta Lydenburg Heads, the earliest-known examples of African sculpture (AD 500–700) in the African Cultures Gallery; a 2m-wide nest – a veritable avian apartment block – of the sociable weaver bird, in the Wonders of Nature Gallery; and the atmospheric Whale Well, hung with giant whale skeletons and models and resounding with taped recordings of their calls.
