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The Cango Caves, a 20-million-year-old subterranean masterpiece, is Africa’s largest show cave system and South Africa’s oldest tourist attraction. Carved into a 750-million-year-old limestone belt within the Swartberg Mountains, it offers a “majestic underground world” of towering dripstones and narrow, pulse-pounding passages. 

“A Journey of Discovery”
Step into a world where time is measured in millennia. The Cango Caves are marketed as a top-tier heritage destination on the iconic Route 62. 

The Experience: Visitors are invited to choose their own pace. The Heritage Tour is a standard 60-minute walk through grand, illuminated halls. For the brave, the Adventure Tour is a 90-minute “spelunking” experience requiring “lean” participants to crawl through tunnels like the “Devil’s Chimney” and “Devil’s Postbox”.

Atmosphere: The caves maintain a humid 18°C (65°F) year-round. Tours often feature a moment of “absolute darkness” when guides switch off the lights, allowing the heavy silence of the earth to settle around you before revealing the glinting Cleopatra’s Needle—a 9-metre stalactite over 150,000 years old. 

Globally recognising the fascinating and mysterious underground world of caves, we celebrate the first week of June as Caves Week and specifically Caves Day on 6 June. This international event raises awareness about the importance of cave conservation, tourism, and their scientific and cultural value.

Oudtshoorn Courant paid a visit to one of the country’s most iconic natural treasures, nestled in the foothills of the Swartberg mountains just outside Oudtshoorn – the Cango Caves – not only a geological marvel but also a vital part of South Africa’s natural and historical heritage. 

History & Archaeological Significance
Prehistoric Roots: Humans have known the caves since the Early Stone Age. San people used the entrance for shelter until approximately 500 years ago, leaving behind rock paintings that are still visible today, though partially damaged.

Modern Discovery (1780): Traditionally attributed to local farmer Jacobus van Zyl, who was lowered into the first massive hall (now named Van Zyl’s Hall).
Another account credits a herder, Klaas Windvogel, with spotting the entrance while searching for lost cattle.

Pioneering Conservation (1820): To halt the 19th-century trend of visitors breaking off stalactites as souvenirs, Lord Charles Somerset enacted the Caves Regulation of 1820—South Africa’s first-ever environmental protection law.

Legendary Guide: Johnnie van Wassenaar served as the first full-time guide for 43 years (1891–1934). He is legendary for having once walked for 29 hours to find the end of the caves, estimating the system to be 25km long. 

The Interpretive Centre’s main theme is time. 
The reason for this is quite simple… it is an effort to explain the concept of time in all it’s complexity and simplicity in order for the visitor to try to understand the processes which the cave underwent to become a cave, as we see it today.

Cango Caves Auditorium – on the 2nd floor of the Visitor Centre – screens a 19 minute film about a expedition into the Wonder Cave (Cango 2), which is closed to the public.