Most of us see it every darn day.

Looming over the City bowl like a teacher making sure we complete every last equation before the bell rings, Table Mountain is that iconic feature we have come to love – and sometimes even hate.

But how much do you know about it? Probably the basics, like that it’s made up of sandstone and that it’s a part of the Cape Floristic Region World Heritage Site.

Oh, you didn’t know about those? Well, then…

To celebrate International Mountain Day, Traveller24 gathered a whole lot of Table Mountain facts. Now the next time someone asks you about it, you can spit rhymes.

First, a handy breakdown of the mountain’s components:

In case you are unable to translate that information, the infographic, on public display at the Upper Cable Station, reveals four different rock layers which constitute the structure of Table Mountain:

1. Peninsula Formation – comprised of light grey, pebbly sandstones this formation, about 475 to 455million years old, is about 700m thick. It forms most of the cliffs of Table Mountain and can most safely be studied by using the Cableway.
2. Graafwater Formation – between 25m and 65m thick, this reddish brown layer of sandstone and siltstone is about 490 to 485million years old and is the mountain’s thinnest layer.
3. Cape Granite – a hard, coarse-grained, igneous rock, about 540 million years old, which forms the foundation for most of Table Mountain. It is characterised by large white potassium-feldspar crystals, shimmering flakes of brown biotite mica amongst grey glassy quartz.
4. Malmesbury Group – around 560million years old, this forms the foundation of Devil’s Peak and all of Signal Hill. It consists mainly of metamorphosed siltstone and quartzitic greywacke (muddy sandstone).

Now that we have the fundamentals down, a few more interesting points to note (the last three are pulled from Rhino Africa):

• Our mountain started eroding about 130million years ago when the Super-continent Gondwana started to split up, causing our then-near neighbour, South America to start a slow but sure westward journey, over the western horizon, to form the South Atlantic Ocean, which is now 7000km wide.
• It is part of the Cape Floristic Region World Heritage Site, with Table Mountain National Park being home to an incredible 8200 plant species – of which 80% are Fynbos.
• At its highest point (Maclear’s Beacon) Table Mountain sits at 1085m above sea level. Table Mountain’s eastern neighbour, Devils Peak, reaches 1000m above sea level and Lion’s Head has its summit at 669m above sea level.
• Table Mountain is referred to as Hoerikwaggo by the Khoikhoi people, meaning “Mountain of the Sea”.
• Table Mountain is the only terrestrial structure in the world to have a constellation named after it. In 1754, French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lecaille named the southern constellation Mensa after the iconic landmark. He originally called it Mons Mensae, which is Latin for “the table mountain”.
• At least two people get married on Table Mountain every month.
• World- famous figures such as King George VI, Queen Elizabeth II, Oprah Winfrey, Sting, Steffi Graf, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Margaret Thatcher, Prince Andrew, Michael Schumacher, Brooke Shields, Michael Bublé, Tina Turner, Jackie Chan, Dolores O’Riordan, Skunk Anansie and Paul Oakenfold have all visited the iconic landmark.

And now you know.

Happy Mountain Day, you bloody ripper.

[source:traveller24&rhinoafrica]