Why Table Mountain Was Already Old When the First Dinosaurs Roamed the Earth

Sharing is caring!

Table Mountain does not look like something that has been waiting 600 million years. It looks too still, too certain of itself. But that flat summit rising above Cape Town is not just scenery — it is one of the oldest exposed rock formations on the planet. When dinosaurs first walked the earth, Table Mountain had already been standing for three times as long.

A Mountain Born Before Reptiles Existed

The sandstone at the top of Table Mountain formed at the bottom of an ancient sea during the Ordovician period — roughly 600 million years ago. That makes it older than the Alps by 500 million years, older than the Himalayas by 550 million years.

The flat top is no accident. It was shaped by millions of years of erosion as the sea retreated and the stone hardened while continents shifted beneath it. What remains is a 3-kilometre plateau sitting at 1,086 metres above sea level — ancient, calm, and entirely indifferent to the city below.

Standing on the summit, you are standing on rock that pre-dates every mountain range that most people consider old.

More Plant Species Than the British Isles

The Cape Peninsula — including Table Mountain — contains more than 2,285 species of plants. The entire British Isles has around 1,700. In an area smaller than most cities, Table Mountain holds a more extraordinary botanical collection than a country of 244,000 square kilometres.

This is part of the Cape Floristic Region, one of only six recognised floral kingdoms on Earth. Over 70% of its plant species exist nowhere else in the world. Proteas come in dozens of varieties here, from the giant king protea — South Africa’s national flower — to delicate pin-cushion varieties that look as though they were imagined rather than grown.

The famous tablecloth cloud that rolls across the summit on summer afternoons is a story in itself. But what the cloud conceals is equally remarkable. The mountain supports an entire ecosystem that has been quietly thriving long before Cape Town existed beneath it.

The Small Animal With a Surprising Relative

You will spot them almost immediately: small, rounded, honey-brown animals dozing on sun-warmed rocks. They look like oversized guinea pigs. They are dassies — also known as rock hyraxes — and they are among the most surprising animals on the mountain.

Despite their appearance, the dassie’s closest living relative is not a rodent. It is the elephant. Their skeletal structure, teeth, toenails, and digestive system all point back to a shared ancestor 55 million years ago. Table Mountain has hundreds of them, largely unbothered by the tourists who pass within arm’s reach.

Below the dassies and the proteas, the mountain’s streams support geometric tortoises, Cape sugarbirds, and one of the rarest amphibians in the world — the Cape leopard toad. A city of four million people surrounds the base. The mountain above it has barely noticed.

Enjoying this? 5,600 South Africa lovers get stories like this every week. Subscribe free →

Two Ways to the Top

Most visitors take the revolving cable car, which runs from the lower cable station to the summit in under ten minutes. On a clear day, the views from the top take in both the Atlantic Ocean and False Bay simultaneously — the only place in Cape Town where you can see both sides of the peninsula at once.

The cable car closes in strong wind, and Cape Town’s south-easter — which locals call the Cape Doctor — makes that happen more often than visitors expect. The mountain sets its own schedule.

For those who prefer to earn the view, Platteklip Gorge is the most accessible hiking route: roughly two hours up through a steep ravine to the plateau. Skeleton Gorge, on the eastern slopes above Kirstenbosch, feels entirely different. The forest closes in, streams cross the path, and the summit arrives without warning.

What the Top Actually Feels Like

There are café tables on the plateau, souvenir shops, and tourists in holiday clothes being surprised by how cold the wind is. But walk ten minutes from the cable car station and the crowds thin to nothing.

The plateau is large enough to get genuinely lost on. Paths wind through fynbos scrubland, past viewpoints that look down onto Camps Bay, onto Robben Island, onto the sweep of the Twelve Apostles mountain chain running south towards Cape Point.

On a calm, clear day, it is one of the quietest places in Cape Town. That silence — 600 million years in the making — has been there below the city the whole time. Most people who visit Cape Town never quite stop to think about what they are standing on.

You Might Also Enjoy

• The Cloud Cape Town Has Named, Watched and Argued About for 350 Years
• Why African Penguins Colonised a Cape Town Beach — and Nobody Asked Them To
• The Saturday Morning Ritual Cape Town Locals Have Kept to Themselves

Plan Your South Africa Trip

Ready to see Table Mountain for yourself? Our Ultimate South Africa Travel Guide covers everything from when to visit Cape Town to where to stay and what to explore beyond the city.

Sharing is caring!