By Andre Barker

Table Mountain was always the first landmark that people see when they approach the country from the sea. It was seen by the first Portuguese explorers and also the later Dutch explorers who sailed around the coast of Africa from Europe to the Eastern Lands. Table Mountain was also the first thing that tourists to the country would see as their ship approached the South African coast. Even soldiers returning from wars in Europe would be welcomed back home by the mighty mountain. To the indigenous people - who lived in the Cape for tens of thousands of years - the mountain was the center of their spiritual lives. No matter how far they traveled through the country, they always returned back to the mountain and its holy sites. They called the mountain, Huri Axa. The Tree that comes out of the Sea. These ancient peoples did not only use the top of the mountain - which is flat like a table top - for their rituals, they also used the inside of the mountains for various purposes. Now, in the modern era, the holy mountain had once again become the center of the people’s resistance against their enemies.