snapshots from johannesburg, south africa.
arriving at o.r. tambo international airport.
april 2024
after cape town, we flew to johannesburg for a couple days. from all the research we had done, we chose to stay in rosebank, a suburb north of the city that’s considered safe and touristy. we did still want to experience and learn about the city though, so we booked a walking tour through joburg places. this is the same company we used for our cape peninsula tour, and we had an equally amazing guide (charlie!) who told us so much about the history of the city and how it came to be as it is today.
kerk street mosque reflected in a neighboring building.
sage life building.
former stock exchange building exterior.
former stock exchange building interior.
one of the more interesting sites we vistited was one of the former stock exchanges. the city has had six in it’s history, and this one was the fifth and in use from 1979 to 2000. like many of the large buildings in the CBD, this one still sits abandoned. the floor of the exchange is eerie with so much still left untouched.
old security panel.
traders’ desks and old phones.
the trading floor.
stained glass detail.
paper planes stuck in the walls and ceilings.
unfortunately, it was raining for a lot of the morning of our tour so we were limited in what we able to see with the time that we had. still, we learned so much and charlie’s love for the city and hope for the future was palpable and energizing. i certainly can’t do the history justice, but i found this great article from BBC that coincidentally interviews our two guides.
diamond building.
architectural juxtaposition.
bus stop.
first chinatown.
dragon pillars (left one damaged) in first chinatown.
nelson mandela shadow boxer statue outside chancellor house.
chancellor house, location of the mandela & tambo law firm.
anglo american building.
impala fountain.
bear and bull.
historic cullinan building lintel.
standard bank centre.
standard bank building.
