The Table Mountain which towers above the city of Cape Town is a natural phenomenon. Quite often, it's completely flat top, stretching for two miles and bordered by impressive cliffs, is covered in clouds which seem to rest on the mountain, spilling down at several places. This enigmatic cloud cover is referred to as the "tablecloth", and legend attributes this visual spectacle to a smoking between the devil and a local pirate called Van Hunks. When the table cloth is seen, it symbolizes the contest. Table Mountain is at the northern end of a sandstone mountain range that forms the spine of the Cape Peninsula. To the south of the main plateau is a lower part of the range called the Back Table. On the Atlantic coast of the peninsula, the range is known as the Twelve Apostles.

On the top, where you can get by a rotating cable car, there is a network of well maintained walking gravel and boardwalk paths, leading to spectacular vistas and displays of fynbos (pronounced “fine bush”) flora. Fynbos forms part of the Cape Floral kingdom, one of the six world’s floral kingdoms, and also its smallest and most diverse. Other floral kingdoms are Boreal, Neotropical, Paleotropical, Australian and Antarctic. The Table Mountain, flanked by Devil’s Peak and Lion’s Head, creates a very dramatic background for the city of Cape Town. On 11/11/11, the Table Mountain was chosen as one of the 7NewWonders of Nature (the others are the Amazon, Halong Bay, Iguazu Falls, Jeju Island, Komodo, and the Puerto Princesa Underground River).