Iziko South African Museum

The Iziko South African Museum sits behind a neoclassical facade of pale, rough-hewn stone, punctuated by a prominent central portico. Established in eighteen twenty-five, it is the oldest museum in the country. Its collection began with the personal cabinet of curiosities belonging to the colonial secretary, Charles Bell. Decades later, the museum curators commissioned a massive, life-sized whale model for the main hall, which still hangs from the ceiling today, suspended over visitors as they wander through the galleries of fossils.