Taken Directly from
http://tablemountain.net/visitor_info/did_you_know/
1
Table Mountain is one of 28 finalists in the International New7Wonders of Nature competition. Show your support and vote for Table Mountain.
2
The special cabling used for the Cableway is Swiss-made, high-tech, full-lock coil, designed to keep moisture out while retaining internal lubrication.
3
There are actually two cable cars, which counterbalance each other – as one goes up, the other comes down. They cannot operate independently of each other.
4
A siren sounds to announce the imminent closure of the top station as a result of high winds approaching.
5
Lions and leopards once roamed wild on Table Mountain.
6
The last lion was sighted on Table Mountain in 1802.
7
It took nearly 40 years of discussion and planning, plus interruptions by two wars, before the first Table Mountain Cableway opened for business on October 4, 1929.
8
Although it resembles a small rabbit, the dassie (rock hyrax) is actually most closely related to the elephant. Their evolutionary relationship is based on similarities in their feet and teeth.
9
The cable cars take visitors 704m, from the lower station at 363m above sea level, to the upper station, at 1067m above sea level.
10
Dassies’ soles are kept moist by special glands. They are able to climb smooth cliffs using their feet as suction pads.
11
The Table Mountain ghost frog (Heleophryne rosei) is a critically endangered species endemic to the eastern and southern slopes.
12
The five most venomous snakes found on the mountain are the Cape cobra, puff adder, boomslang, rinkhals and berg adder.
13
The male agama lizard is a particularly interesting sight during mating season, when its head turns bright blue.
14
The height of the Upper Cableway Station is 1067m above sea level.
15
The cable cars travel at a maximum speed of 10m per second.
16
Table Mountain, a World Heritage Site, is the natural home to fynbos, a unique, yet endangered, collection of shrubs and plants.
17
Compare the upper ramparts of Table Mountain and Lion’s Head and you will note similar rock layers – the remnants of strata pushed up 280 - 220-million years ago and concertina-ed into a massive range. It once stood thousands of metres high, connecting the Peninsula to the Hottentots Holland Mountains (to the east) and covering the present-day Cape Flats and False Bay. Massive erosion has reduced this range to what you now see.
18
Three rock formations make up the Cape Peninsula. These are the Malmesbury group (mudstone and sandstone), Cape granite (white feldspar, black mica and grey quartz) and the Table Mountain group. The Table Mountain group includes the Graafwater formation – red and purple sandstone and mudstone; the Peninsula formation – grey, pebbled sandstone, and the Pakhuis formation, which forms the top of the mountain (glacial deposits of sandstone pebbles).
19
The Cape has the highest known concentration of plant species – 1 300 per 10 000km squared.
20
Within the Table Mountain National Park lies the richest single floristic area on the planet.
21
Although runaway fires threaten the survival of young fynbos, mature vegetation is actually dependent on fire for seed dispersal and new growth.
22
Table Mountain is approximately 260-million years old. By comparison, the Andes are about 250-million years old, the Rockies are about 60-million, the Himalayas are 40-million and the Alps are 32-million years old.
23
Cape Town enjoys a Mediterranean climate, with hot, dry summers and cold, wet winters. January, February, March, November and December average the lowest monthly rainfall.
24
Summer temperatures may hit the 35ºC mark, while winter temperatures have been known to drop as low as -1ºC. It even occasionally snows on Table Mountain.
25
South Africa boasts the third-highest level of biodiversity in the world, and is the only country to contain an entire floral kingdom. The Cape Floral Kingdom is one of the country’s eight World Heritage sites.
26
Two of the world’s oceans meet off the tip of the Cape Peninsula: the warmer Indian Ocean on the east and the colder Atlantic Ocean on the west.
27
The top of Table Mountain is flat, and the thick, white mist that often drapes it, is called the “tablecloth”.
28
At 1085m (3559ft), Maclear’s Beacon is the highest point on Table Mountain. A large stone cairn – built by Sir Thomas Maclear in 1844 – marks the exact spot.
29
You can abseil down Table Mountain under the guidance of abseiling experts.
30
There are only three Rotair cable cars in the world: one in Switzerland, one in the United States and the cable car in South Africa.
31
Table Mountain’s cloudy “tablecloth” is the stuff of legends: one tells of the San Mantis god smothering a blaze on the slope with a huge white karos (animal pelt). Another says the cloud comes from a smoking contest between the Devil and a local pirate called Van Hunks.
32
The south-easterly winds that are forced over the neck between Devil’s Peak and Table Mountain can reach speeds of up to 130km/h (81mi/h). They clear Cape Town of its smog and heat – hence the name, The Cape Doctor.
33
The Cableway is the only South African attraction operator to have received the ISO 14001 environmental management accreditation. This is awarded by the South African Bureau of Standards and is one of the highest international standards of environmental management.
34
Prehistoric people first left evidence of their lives on Table Mountain more than 600 000 years ago.
35
Table Mountain features several rare sandstone cave systems (most caves occur in limestone), the largest of which are the Wynberg Caves.
36
The cable car’s base is filled with water, and serves as a ballast in windy conditions.
37
Many visiting presidents, a piano, a few dogs and local and international celebrities have travelled on the Cableway.
38
Celebrities to have visited Table Mountain include Oprah Winfrey, Forrest Whitaker, Sting, Queen Elizabeth, Tina Turner and Skunk Anansie.
39
The constellation, Mensa, was named after Table Mountain by French astrologer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in 1754. Lacaille studied the southern sky from the top of Table Mountain. The brightest star in the Mensa constellation is Alpha Mensae. Table Mountain is the only mountain in the world to have a constellation named after it.
40
The indigenous inhabitants of the Cape, the Khoekhoe (pronounced and popularly referred to as Khoikhoi), called Table Mountain Hoerikwaggo, meaning “sea mountain”.
41
In 1503, Admiral Antonio de Saldanha anchored his fleet in the bay, climbed the mountain via Platteklip Gorge, and named it Taboa do Cabo, “Table of the Cape”.
42
On World Environment Day in 1998, then President Nelson Mandela declared Table Mountain “a gift to the Earth”.
43
In June 2004, the Cape Floral Kingdom, which is the smallest and richest on Earth, and is home to an amazing 8200 plant species, was recognised as a Natural World Heritage Site.
44
Dassies were revered by the San as the incarnation of their Mantis god’s wife.
45
By the late 1870s, several of Cape Town’s more prominent citizens had suggested the introduction of a railway line to the top of Table Mountain, but the outbreak of the Anglo-Boer War put a halt to the plans.
46
Construction of the Cableway was first started in 1926, with it officially opening in 1929.
The first cable car – with a tin roof and wooden sides – was officially opened to the public on October 4, 1929. It carried 20 passengers.
47
The Cableway’s revolving cars carry 65 passengers. Famous visitors over time have included Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw, King George VI, the Queen Mother and Sir Edmund Hillary.
48
Many large animals, including the extinct Cape lion and quagga, as well as leopard, wild dog, hippo, rhino and even elephant, ranged across the Cape Peninsula just a few hundred years ago.
49
Three blockhouses were built on Table Mountain in 1796, during the first British Occupation of the Cape. Two are now in ruins, but the third, the King’s Blockhouse, on the slopes of Devil’s Peak and above the Rhodes Memorial, is still in relatively good condition.
50
The Cableway has transported over 20-million people to the summit of Table Mountain.
http://tablemountain.net/visitor_info/did_you_know/
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