South Africa is called the Rainbow Nation.  This is because the people of South Africa are a multiculture blend of many different people.  The earliest population are the San and Khoi who have lived in the area for at least 20,000 years.  Later groups to migrate were Black Africans, White Europeans, and Indian/Asians.

There are eleven official languages in the Rainbow Nation - Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Pedi, Sotho, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa, and Zulu.

South Africa entirely surrounds another country, the tiny kingdom of Lesotho.

In 1994, Nelson Mandela, who had been a political prisoner of Apartheid for 27 years, was elected the first democratically elected president of South Africa.

South Africa has three capitals. Capetown is the legislative capital. Pretoria is the administrative capital.  Bloemfontein is the judicial capitals

Table Mountain, that dominates Capetown from any angle, is believed to be one of the oldest mountains in the world.

Sorry, Texans.  South Africa is three times the size of your state.  It is five times the size of Japan.

South Africa produces close to half of the world's gold.  The world's largest diamond, the Cullinan, was discovered in South Africa in 1905.

Agriculture is an important industry.  South Africa is famous for its wine, and the country is the world's second largest exporter of fruit.

The world's first heart transplant took place in South Africa in 1967.

South Africa is the home of the vuvuzela, the long plastic horn the is heard constantly throughout any football (soccer) game