Johannesburg is really a tourist destination, but because the city is a transit point for connecting flights to Cape Town, Durban, and the Kruger National Park, most international visitors to South Africa pass through Johannesburg at least once. This fact prompted the development of more tourist attractions in the area.
Popular new museums, such as the Apartheid Museum and the Hector Pieterson Museum offer visitors a glimpse into the recent history of Johannesburg and South Africa. Museum Africa covers the history of the city of Johannesburg, as well as housing a large collection of rock art.
Gold Reef City is a large amusement park to the south of the Central Business District that, until the 1970s, was part of the Crown Mines goldmine. Gold Reef City became a museum focusing on both the history of gold and the extraordinary geology of the area. The old mine shaft, one of hundreds of mine shafts along the massive east-west arc of gold-bearing reef, has been kept in working order so that visitors may descend to the rock face deep underground, just as the miners once did.
The Johannesburg Zoo is one of the largest zoos in South Africa.
Several art museums, including the Johannesburg Art Gallery featuring South African and European landscape and figurative paintings and the Newtown Art Gallery, can be found in Johannesburg.
Newtown just to the west of the CBD, houses the Newtown Cultural Precinct and the Workers' Library, set up to give mineworkers, in particular, access to research library facilities. Many of Gandhi's cases, another great 20th century freedom fighter, are kept here.
The Victorian Market Theatre building in the Market Theatre complex in Newtown, originally the 'Indian market' where fresh produce were traded, houses the city's principal socio-historic museum. Later, the municipality constructed a number of buildings near the market to house workers who were retained as part of South Africa's notorious migrant labour system. The Market Theatre became widely known during the 1970s and 1980s for staging anti-apartheid plays and has now become a centre for modern South African playwriting.
Oriental Plaza, a vibrant shopping complex, where the majority of shop owners are South African Indians and much of the wares have Indian connections, is another interesting place.
The Johannesburg Fort originally built by Paul Kruger late in the 19th century, to protect Johannesburg in case of a war with Britain, was surrendered to the English during the Anglo Boer War. Some say that Johannesburg Fort, the only major, military structure built in Johannesburg by the Transvaal Republic, was designed to control, not protect, the rebellious mining town. Johannesburg Fort was surrendered to the English without a shot being fired and later became a convenient prison for Johannesburg lawbreakers. The Johannesburg Fort became a place of incarceration for people like Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Ruth First, Jo Slovo and Ahmed Kathrada. The battlements offer commanding views of the city and its gold mines.
Stonehouse, the home of Sir Herbert Baker, renowned architect and mining magnate, as well as Lord Alfred Milner's Kindergarten Moot Cottage are located in the interesting suburb of Parktown. The Parktown and Westcliff Heritage Trust organises walking tours through this, and many other interesting areas in Johannesburg.
A large tourist-industry revolves around visiting former townships, such as Soweto and Alexandria. Most visitors to Soweto go to see the Mandela Museum, which is located in the former Orlando West home of Nelson Mandela.
The Cradle of Humankind UNESCO World Heritage Site is located 25 kilometres to the northwest of the city.
