South African Museum

About South African Museum

The oldest museum in sub-Saharan Africa, the South African Museum (SAM) has been adding to their collections for nearly 200 years and was established in 1825 in Cape Town. Collections at the Museum range from fossils to insects and fish found as recently as a week ago; there are Stone Age tools, over 120 000 years old, side by side with displays of traditional clothes from last century.

Did you know? The museum is in the Company’s Gardens in Queen Victoria Street. Founded in 1825 the museum takes care of more than 1.5-million items of cultural and scientific significance.

The South African Museum offers a diverse range of exhibitions and visitors have not failed to leave the Museum without a better understanding of the earth and its biological and cultural diversity - both past and present. It lies in Company Gardens, at the opposite end to the Houses of Parliament, with its entrance on Queen Victoria Street.

The South African Museum was founded by Lord Charles Somerset and is the second oldest scientific institute in the country - the Royal Observatory was established just five years earlier.

It is both a research and educational institution and offers collections of natural history and anthropological objects that document all forms of life - living and extinct - from southern Africa.

The South African Museum also traces the material cultural heritage of our indigenous populations back to their earliest origins, and the research collections are studied by scientists and students world-wide. The Museum is one of the biggest tourist attractions in Cape Town and over 400 000 people visit the museum each year.