The short answer
Table Mountain is the flat top that Cape Town lives under: a level plateau about three kilometres across, edged with cliffs, rising to 1,086 metres at Maclear’s Beacon. The Khoe-speaking clans whose land it long was called it Huriǂoaxa, “sea-emerging”. António de Saldanha, the Portuguese navigator who made the first recorded climb in 1503, called it Taboa do Cabo, the Table of the Cape.
From Tally’s diary
Went up a grey face of rock with a flat top, the city and harbour spread round its feet, the wind coming at me sideways. On the flat were shrubs and flowers I had no names for, and a small furry creature sunbathing as if it paid rent. Then a white cloud came pouring over the edge like a cloth being laid, and I sat still until it had finished.
July 2018The city bowl beneath the mountain's north face at dawn.
Photograph: Daniel Case, Cape Town City Bowl and Table Mountain at dawn, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped
Why it's worth knowing
Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille came to the Cape of Good Hope in 1750 to observe the southern sky and built an observatory on the shore of Table Bay. Between 1751 and 1752 he recorded nearly 10,000 southern stars, and to fill the parts of the sky that no European constellation covered he invented fourteen new ones. Thirteen of them honour instruments of the Enlightenment, among them the telescope, the microscope and the air pump. The fourteenth honours the mountain he worked beneath.
1756Lacaille's planisphere of the southern sky, printed in 1756 in the Académie royale des sciences' Mémoires for 1752: the mountain's first appearance as a constellation, \"Montagne de la Table\" (historic chart).
Engraving: Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille, engraved by J. Ingram (Bibliothèque nationale de France), Public domain
He first called it Montagne de la Table, on his planisphere of 1756, and Mons Mensae in 1763; by the 1840s it had been cut to Mensa.
Lacaille gave his mountain its cloud as well. Part of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a neighbouring galaxy, lies within Mensa, so the constellation wears a white cloud like the tablecloth that settles on the mountain itself; Lacaille remembered how the mountain clouded over when the south-easterly blew. Mensa is also the faintest constellation in the sky: its brightest star is barely visible from a suburb.
The field notes
The tablecloth
When a south-easterly wind drives moist air up the mountain’s slopes into colder air, the moisture condenses into a sheet of cloud that spills over the edge of the plateau: the tablecloth. Cape Town’s folklore blames a smoking contest between the Devil and a pirate called Van Hunks. The weather on top can change suddenly and take the view with it, and the cableway closes in strong wind.
November 2000The 'tablecloth': cloud spilling over the plateau edge (film photograph).
Photograph: KodachromeFan, Cape Town, Table Mountain, Table Cloth, CC BY-SA 3.0
A valley floor on top
The mountain is flat because it was once low. It is a syncline, the trough of a fold: the high ground around it has worn away to leave the low Cape Flats, while the hard sandstone of the old valley floor has stayed standing as the plateau. That grey Table Mountain Sandstone is about 450 to 510 million years old, and it rests on Cape granite.
More kinds of plant than Britain
About 1,500 plant species grow on the 57 square kilometres of Table Mountain and the Back Table: at least as many as in the whole of the United Kingdom. Most are fynbos, the fine-leaved shrubland adapted to fire that is found only in the Cape. The mountain also has a frog found nowhere else, the Table Mountain ghost frog.
The cableway
The Table Mountain Aerial Cableway opened on 4 October 1929. Its Rotair cars climb 704 metres, from the lower station at 363 metres above sea level to the upper station at 1,067 metres, and their floors turn as they go, so that every passenger gets the whole view on the way up.
July 2018A cableway car climbing the north face to the upper station.
Photograph: Matti Blume, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped
- Look at the top before you look at the queue. If the cloth is on, have breakfast and wait.
- Carry a warm layer up on the hottest day, and start down while there is plenty of light left.
- Walk up at least one way, slowly, and learn the name of one plant properly.
- Keep to the path and leave every flower where it is. The top is theirs.
- Keep the list out of the wind at the top. (Failed. Two items are somewhere over the city, and I hope whoever finds them does them properly.)
A relic from Table Mountain
Relic, entry 113Age: about 450 to 510 million yearsFrom: the plateau, 1,086 m
A piece of the flat top: grey Table Mountain Sandstone, the hard rock that was once the floor of a valley and stayed standing when everything around it wore away. When the south-easterly blows, the tablecloth is laid across it.
Tally, in the marginA tabletop that used to be a floor. I sat on it for most of an afternoon while the cloth was laid, and nobody came to dinner. I stayed anyway, in case.
Getting there
- 1
Cape Town
The lower cableway station, on Tafelberg Road.
- 2
Up by cableway
Floors that turn, for the whole view.
- 3
Or on foot
Up Platteklip Gorge, the direct route, or longer ways from Kirstenbosch.
- ✓
How to get there. Cape Town spreads round the mountain’s feet. The cableway’s lower station is on Tafelberg Road, on the city side of the mountain, and the cableway can close without warning in bad weather.
Walking up. Platteklip Gorge, up the middle of the front face, is the direct route, steep and almost without shade. Longer routes start from Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden on the southern side. South African National Parks (SANParks) publishes walking and weather advice for the mountain.
The weather. SANParks warns that Platteklip Gorge can be extremely hot, and that the top can be much colder and windier than the city below, with an icy wind even in January and February.
Safety. The State Department has South Africa at Level 2, exercise increased caution, because of crime, terrorism, civil unrest and kidnapping. It advises visitors not to walk alone, especially after dark, and to stay alert at tourist spots.
Mark this place
The passport stamp for this place.
Common questions
Why is Table Mountain flat?
Because it was once the floor of a valley. Table Mountain in Cape Town is a syncline, the trough of a fold in the rock: the higher ground of the fold has worn away, while the hard Table Mountain Sandstone of the old trough has stayed standing as a level plateau about three kilometres across.
Is there a constellation named after Table Mountain?
Yes, and it is the only one named after a feature on Earth. The French astronomer Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille, who catalogued southern stars from the Cape in 1751–52, called it Montagne de la Table; it has been Mensa since the 1840s.
How high is Table Mountain?
1,086 metres at the top. The highest point of Table Mountain, Maclear’s Beacon at the eastern end of the plateau above Cape Town, is 1,086 metres above sea level; the upper station of the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway, at the western end, is at 1,067 metres.
What is the Table Mountain tablecloth?
A cloud that lays itself like a cloth. The tablecloth forms over the flat top of Table Mountain in Cape Town when a south-easterly wind pushes moist air up its slopes into colder air, where the moisture condenses and spills over the cliffs. Local folklore blames a smoking contest between the Devil and a pirate named Van Hunks.
How long does it take to hike up Table Mountain?
About two and a half hours by the direct route. Platteklip Gorge, up the front of Table Mountain in Cape Town, climbs steeply with almost no shade.
When did the Table Mountain cableway open?
On 4 October 1929. The Table Mountain Aerial Cableway in Cape Town runs Rotair cars whose floors turn during the ride, climbing 704 metres from the lower station to the upper station at 1,067 metres.
How many plant species grow on Table Mountain?
About 1,500, at least as many as in the whole of the United Kingdom. They grow on the 57 square kilometres of Table Mountain and the Back Table in Cape Town, most of them fynbos, and belong to the Cape Floral Region Protected Areas, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2004.
Who first climbed Table Mountain?
The first recorded climb was in 1503. The Portuguese navigator António de Saldanha went up Table Mountain and named it Taboa do Cabo, the Table of the Cape. The land had long been home to Khoe-speaking clans, whose name for the mountain, Huriǂoaxa, means “sea-emerging”.
Photographs on this page
Tap a photograph to see it full size.
Photograph: Matti Blume, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped
Photograph: Daniel Case, Cape Town City Bowl and Table Mountain at dawn, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped
Photograph: KodachromeFan, Cape Town, Table Mountain, Table Cloth, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photograph: Matti Blume, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped
Engraving: Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille, engraved by J. Ingram (Bibliothèque nationale de France), Public domain
