Rhodes Memorial

Description

Rhodes Memorial is a stately attraction perched at the base of Devil’s Peak on the Table Mountain range in Cape Town. It offers glorious views over the city, towards Table Bay, False Bay, and the Hottentots Holland mountains in the distance.

Designed by acclaimed architect, Sir Herbert Baker, between 1910 – 1912, the memorial stands on the site where Sir Cecil John Rhodes was known to sit and contemplate his future. He considered the view to the “unsurpassed anywhere in the world”. It incorporates a massive staircase of 49 steps (one for each year of Rhode’s life), U-shaped Doric columns, 8 lions that mimic those protecting the Nelson column in London’s Trafalgar Square, and the “Statue of Energy” – a bronze statue of a horseman rearing at the foot of the steps. The inscription on the monument reads “To the spirit and life work of Cecil John Rhodes who loved and served South Africa”. Below his chest are th5e four lines of the last stanza from the 1902 poem, Burial by Rudyard Kipling:

The immense and brooding spirit still Shall quicken and control. Living he was the land, and dead, His soul shall be her soul!

Today, the memorial is a national landmark, and its great spot for picnics and photographs. You will often see wedding parties making use of the idyllic backdrop. What was previously a cottage has been transformed into a popular tea room. Breakfast, lunch, and tea is served here with a spectacular view. A number of hiking trails and contour paths lead from Rhodes Memorial.