Founded in Newtown in 1994, Museum Africa is Johannesburg's major historical museum. Evocative multimedia displays and walk-through reconstructions of various historic periods take visitors on a journey from the city's golden era to the present day.
There are special exhibits on domestic labour, shack life and township jazz, as well as the role of two great 20th-century heroes, Mahatma Gandhi, who lived and worked in the city, and Nelson Mandela, who was jailed in The Fort after the historic 1956 Treason Trial.
But Johannesburg's story goes back much further, and the museum also focuses on early man, Stone and Iron Age communities, as well as the first white settlers in the area. From the very earliest of times there is the unique collection of rock paintings and engravings.