Voortrekker Cenotaph

Two people read the plague of the cenotaph inside the Voortrekker Monument. This historical building, not far from the city center, was built between 1937 and 1949 to commemorate the Great Trek. On the 16 th December every year the sun shines through a portal, atop the dome of the building, to cast a ray of sunshine at precisely 12:00 noon onto the cenotaph.

The Voortrekker monument was built to celebrate the Great Trek that began in 1835 and continued to 1852. These pioneers left the region around Port Elizabeth to move northward to the interior and later formed the Boer republics known as the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (Transvaal) and Oranje-Vrijstaat. The flags can be seen in the background with the well known vier kleur (four colours) on the left. These colours depict the Dutch flag with the three horizontal colours and the vertical green bar representing freedom.

It was the Great Trek that led to the founding of cities like the modern day Pretoria and Bloemfontein including many other towns in the South African interior. Younger cities like Johannesburg were founded through the discovery of gold which ultimately lead to the Anglo Boer war between 1899 and 1902 and the demise of the Boer Republics.