Every Capetonian has a relationship with this mountain. It is the first thing you look for in the morning, and it tells you what the weather is about to do.
Table Mountain rises straight out of the city, a flat-topped wall of sandstone more than a thousand metres high, with Devil's Peak on one side and Lion's Head on the other. When the Portuguese navigator António de Saldanha climbed it in 1503, he called it the Table of the Cape, and the name has stuck for more than five hundred years.
From the top you can see the whole of the Cape laid out below you: the city and the harbour, Robben Island out in Table Bay, the white beaches of Camps Bay and Clifton, and the line of the Twelve Apostles running south towards Cape Point. I never tire of it, and I love watching guests see it for the first time.
John Sparks
Table Mountain on film
A mountain with a story
The tablecloth
When the south-easter blows, a sheet of white cloud spills over the top and down the cliffs. Legend says it is the smoke from a contest between a retired pirate, Van Hunks, and the devil, who sit on Devil's Peak trying to outsmoke each other.
A mountain in the stars
Mensa, a constellation in the southern sky, is named after Table Mountain. It was charted from the Cape by the French astronomer Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille in the 1750s, and it is the only constellation named after a place on Earth.
A garden in the clouds
The mountain is part of the Cape Floral Kingdom, the smallest and richest of the world's six plant kingdoms. There are more kinds of plant on this one mountain than in the whole of the British Isles, among them proteas, ericas and orchids found nowhere else.
The dassie
The furry little rock hyrax you will meet sunning itself at the top looks like a large guinea pig, yet its closest living relatives are the elephant and the dugong.
A wonder of the world
In 2011 Table Mountain was named one of the New7Wonders of Nature, chosen in a worldwide vote alongside the Amazon, Iguazu Falls and Halong Bay.
Weather permitting
The cableway stops when the wind is too strong or the cloud too thick. We watch the mountain on the morning and choose the clearest hour, and on a wild day we save it for later in your stay.
The mountain, the way I like it
Up by cable car
The cable car rises the 765 metres from the lower station in about five minutes, and the floor turns slowly so everyone gets the whole view. We go early, before the queues and while the air is clear, and for a group we can arrange a private car.
Along the top
The summit is a broad plateau of rock and fynbos, with easy paths to the viewpoints over the city, the Atlantic and the Twelve Apostles. Take your time; the dassies certainly do.
Or on foot
For those who like a challenge, the walk up Platteklip Gorge takes two to three hours, with a guide, and the cable car brings you down. There are gentler walks on the lower slopes too.
The evening
On a summer's evening we stay for the sunset, with a glass of something cold, as the light goes gold over the Atlantic and the city lights come on below.
Photographs and videos to keep
Thirty-three photographs of the mountain from every side, to view large and download, and the Table Mountain films on YouTube.
Open the gallery ↗The first thing you look for in the morning.
Before you go
Where
The lower cable station is on Tafelberg Road, about ten minutes' drive from the city centre and the V&A Waterfront.
How long
Allow two to three hours for the ride, the walk along the top and a coffee at the summit. Longer if you are staying for the sunset.
Bring
A warm layer and a windproof jacket. It can be ten degrees cooler at the top than in town, even on a summer's day.
Getting the timing right
The mountain makes its own weather. We plan it for your first clear morning, so it never depends on a single day.
Pairs well with
The drive along Chapman's Peak, a day at the Cape of Good Hope, and a stay at the Radisson Collection on the Waterfront, with the mountain at the window.
Photographs from Wikimedia Commons, used under Creative Commons licences. Photographers are credited in the gallery.