Johannesburg
Johannesburg is the capital of Gauteng, South Africa,1 and has 8.76 million metropolitan residents.2 At 1,665 meters, it is in the high veldt, north of the Klipriviersberg hills. After 1886, when gold was discovered nearby, it developed rapidly. Forced racial segregation added settlements originally beyond the city limits, most notably Soweto. These settlements are now part of the municipality. Buildings of note are: the Carlton Centre Office Tower (1973), the tallest building in Africa at 730 feet; the Ponte City Apartments (1975), the tallest residential building in Africa with 54 floors; 11 Diagonal Street (1984), designed to look like a reflecting diamond on its side; and His Majestys Building, an art deco building completed in 1944. The tallest structure is the Hillbrow Tower (886 feet, 1971).3 The metropolis is served by Tambo International Airport, which is also called Johannesburg International Airport, one of the continents busiest.
| Year | Population | Political entity |
| 1900 CE | 173,0004| Republic of South-Afrika (at the beginning of the year) | |
| 2012 CE | 8,760,0002| Republic of South Africa/ Afrika/ Aforika/ Afurika | |
Historical Maps
External references
Skyline of central Johannesburg, Gauteng Province, Republic of South Africa/ Afrika/ Aforika/ Afurika
Footnotes
1. Afrika or Aforika or Afurika in other official languages than English.
2. 2012 figure from world-gazetteer.com, accessed February 6, 2013.
3. Information about buildings is from emporis.com, accessed August 22, 2016.
4. Tertius Chandler, Four Thousand Years of Urban Growth, 2nd ed. (The Edwin Mellen Press, 1987), "Tables of World's Largest Cities". Johannesburg was the largest city in what is now Gauteng and Mpumalanga provinces and Swaziland in 1900 and 2000 CE.
