Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden
Audio Tour

Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden

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1
Africa's First Indigenous Botanical Garden
Visitors' Centre (Gate 1)
Kirstenbosch was founded in 1913, making it one of the first botanical gardens in the world dedicated exclusively to indigenous flora.
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2
Colonel Bird's Bath Predates the Garden
The Dell & Colonel Bird's Bath
Colonel Bird's Bath was here long before Kirstenbosch became a botanical garden.
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3
Cycads Outlived the Dinosaurs by Design
Cycad Amphitheatre
Cycads first appeared over two hundred and eighty million years ago, making them older than dinosaurs by roughly fifty million years.
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4
Walking Through the Forest Canopy
Centenary Tree Canopy Walkway (The Boomslang)
The Boomslang was designed by Mark Thomas Architects and structural engineer Henry Fagan, and it took over two years to build.
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5
Protea Garden and Ancient Plant Lineage
Protea Garden
The Proteaceae family is roughly 100 million years old, originating when Africa, South America, and Australia were still connected as Gondwana.
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6
Desert Plants Under Glass in Cape Town
Botanical Society Conservatory
This conservatory exists because Cape Town's wet winters would kill most of the plants inside it.
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7
Fynbos: Earth's Richest Plant Kingdom
Fynbos Garden / Fynbos Walk
The Cape Floral Kingdom is the smallest of the world's six floral kingdoms, yet it contains roughly nine thousand three hundred plant species, more per square metre than…
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8
A Garden Built for Touch and Smell
Fragrance Garden
This garden was specifically designed so that visitors who are blind or have low vision can experience plants through touch and scent.
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9
Stone Sculptures Among the Gardens
Sculpture Garden
Most of the sculptures here are carved from a single type of stone — Springstone, a hard serpentine rock quarried in Zimbabwe.
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10
Garden of Extinction's Living Warning
Garden of Extinction
South Africa has over twenty thousand plant species, and roughly ten percent of them face extinction.
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11
Plants That Sustained Southern Africa's First People
Useful Plants Garden
The Khoisan and other indigenous groups of southern Africa developed sophisticated botanical knowledge over thousands of years, and this garden preserves a fraction of…
0:00
12
Harold Pearson's Final Resting Place
Pearson's Grave
Harold Pearson died in 1916, just three years after founding Kirstenbosch, and was buried here at his own request — inside the garden he created. He was only forty-six.
0:00
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1
Africa's First Indigenous Botanical Garden
Visitors' Centre (Gate 1)
Kirstenbosch was founded in 1913, making it one of the first botanical gardens in the world dedicated exclusively to indigenous flora.
0:00
2
Colonel Bird's Bath Predates the Garden
The Dell & Colonel Bird's Bath
Colonel Bird's Bath was here long before Kirstenbosch became a botanical garden.
0:00
3
Cycads Outlived the Dinosaurs by Design
Cycad Amphitheatre
Cycads first appeared over two hundred and eighty million years ago, making them older than dinosaurs by roughly fifty million years.
0:00
4
Walking Through the Forest Canopy
Centenary Tree Canopy Walkway (The Boomslang)
The Boomslang was designed by Mark Thomas Architects and structural engineer Henry Fagan, and it took over two years to build.
0:00
5
Protea Garden and Ancient Plant Lineage
Protea Garden
The Proteaceae family is roughly 100 million years old, originating when Africa, South America, and Australia were still connected as Gondwana.
0:00
6
Desert Plants Under Glass in Cape Town
Botanical Society Conservatory
This conservatory exists because Cape Town's wet winters would kill most of the plants inside it.
0:00
7
Fynbos: Earth's Richest Plant Kingdom
Fynbos Garden / Fynbos Walk
The Cape Floral Kingdom is the smallest of the world's six floral kingdoms, yet it contains roughly nine thousand three hundred plant species, more per square metre than…
0:00
8
A Garden Built for Touch and Smell
Fragrance Garden
This garden was specifically designed so that visitors who are blind or have low vision can experience plants through touch and scent.
0:00
9
Stone Sculptures Among the Gardens
Sculpture Garden
Most of the sculptures here are carved from a single type of stone — Springstone, a hard serpentine rock quarried in Zimbabwe.
0:00
10
Garden of Extinction's Living Warning
Garden of Extinction
South Africa has over twenty thousand plant species, and roughly ten percent of them face extinction.
0:00
11
Plants That Sustained Southern Africa's First People
Useful Plants Garden
The Khoisan and other indigenous groups of southern Africa developed sophisticated botanical knowledge over thousands of years, and this garden preserves a fraction of…
0:00
12
Harold Pearson's Final Resting Place
Pearson's Grave
Harold Pearson died in 1916, just three years after founding Kirstenbosch, and was buried here at his own request — inside the garden he created. He was only forty-six.
0:00
iOS · Works offline · Hands-free