Get to know the World Cup host cities

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A boy plays soccer on the beach in Durban, South Africa, where the warm waters invite plenty of swimmers into the Indian Ocean.

JOHANNESBURG - Meet the nine South African cities hosting World Cup soccer matches through July 11:

Bloemfontein

Both the defunct National Party - the party of apartheid - and the African National Congress were founded in this university town in the country's agricultural heartland.

The nearby Soetdoring Nature Reserve is a birder's mecca. Military buffs will be drawn to Bloemfontein's Anglo-Boer War cemetery, and sports fans can take time out from "football" to visit this rugby-loving city's Choet Visser Rugby Museum.

Bloemfontein is about an hour's drive from Maseru, capital of the landlocked kingdom of Lesotho, with its spectacular, high-altitude vistas and pony treks.

"Lord of the Rings" author JRR Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein in 1892, moving to England when he was 3.

Cape Town

Known as the Mother City, this cosmopolitan port city grew from a settlement founded by the Dutch East India Company in 1652. Cape Town is famous around the world for its dramatically beautiful setting, beneath Table Mountain, and at the confluence of the Atlantic and Indian oceans. It's also near South Africa's winelands.

Nelson Mandela spent most of his 27 years in prison off Cape Town on Robben Island, now a museum accessible by ferry. Cape Town winters can be wet and blustery - the ferry to Robben Island doesn't run when seas are too choppy.

Nearby Pollsmoor Prison, where Mandela was held from 1982-88, welcomes visitors for meals at the Pollsmoor Mess, a full-service restaurant run by prisoners being prepared for jobs upon their release.

Durban

The main city in KwaZulu-Natal is Africa's busiest port. The area gave South Africa King Shaka, considered the 19th century founder of the Zulu nation, as well as its current president, Jacob Zuma. World Cup visitors will find some of South Africa's best winter weather here, with water warm enough for swimming in the Indian Ocean.

History buffs should visit nearby battlefields where British, Zulu and Afrikaner soldiers clashed in the 19th century. Foodies can taste local Indian cuisine, developed by South Africans descended from indentured workers brought from India in the 19th century to work on KwaZulu-Natal's sugar plantations. Durbanites claim to have invented bunny chow (curry served in a hollowed-out loaf of bread) and argue endlessly about which fast-food joint serves the best version of this dish, now found all over South Africa.

Johannesburg

South Africa's economic hub dates to the gold rush of the late 1800s. It's home to headquarters of the nation's banks and mining companies, and to the mansions of its gold and platinum magnates. Johannesburg boasts two World Cup stadiums.

A row of mine dumps - mesas of pale yellow sand left over when gold was dug from some of the world's deepest shafts - separate downtown from Soweto. Once a dormitory community the apartheid government built for blacks, Soweto now is a vibrant urban center that is part of greater Johannesburg.

Several sites in Johannesburg trace the nation's difficult and inspiring journey from apartheid to democracy: Soweto's Hector Pieterson Museum; the Apartheid Museum, set rather incongruously on the grounds of an amusement park and casino in southern Johannesburg, and the home of the Constitutional Court, where tour guides take visitors through the remnants of a hilltop Johannesburg prison that once held both Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi, to the court that now protects a fledgling democracy.

Nelspruit

A fruit-farming hub that competes with Durban for balmiest winter weather. Instead of Indian Ocean beaches, Nelspruit has Kruger National Park, South Africa's flagship state park. Kruger accommodations range from luxury lodges with rooms with private plunge pools to sites where you can put up your own tent.

Malelane and Numbi gates, southern entrances to Kruger, are less than 40 miles from Nelspruit. A slightly longer drive will get you to neighboring Mozambique's seaside capital, Maputo, and Mbabane, capital of Swaziland, Africa's last absolute monarchy.

Polokwane

This agricultural, mining and manufacturing center is a major stop on the busy route from Johannesburg to Zimbabwe. Its corner of South Africa is eerily beautiful, with stretches of flat, dry landscape broken by statuesque baobab trees and dramatic boulder formations. Attractions in the area include the Modjadji Nature Reserve, a forest of cycads, a protected species native to southern Africa.

The homeland of the Balobedu is near the reserve. The tribe is one of the few in Africa to have a leader who comes from a female line of succession.

Port Elizabeth

This Indian Ocean port city is known for its beaches, a wealth of examples of Art Nouveau architecture and the elephants of nearby Ado National Park.

Nelson Mandela's home village, Qunu, is a day's drive from Port Elizabeth. Mandela, who lives in Johannesburg, often spends holidays and his July 18 birthday in Qunu, which also has a Nelson Mandela Museum.

Pretoria

South Africa's executive capital is known as the Jacaranda City. Pretoria isn't in full, purple bloom in June, but its hilltop Union Buildings, seat of the presidency, is as stately as ever.

In 1956, women of all races from across South Africa singing, "Strike the woman, strike the rock," marched peacefully on the Union Buildings to protest the extension to women of pass laws restricting blacks' movement. In 1994, Mandela took the presidential oath of office on the steps of the Union Buildings. Pretoria also is home to the mammoth Voortrekker Monument, honoring 19th century pioneers who battled Zulu warriors to settle South Africa's interior.

Rustenburg

Rustenburg's World Cup matches are being played in a stadium owned by the Bafokeng-Bakwena, or "People of the Crocodile," a South African clan proud of its history.

Platinum was discovered deep under Bafokeng territory in the 1920s, but the tribe did not fully realize the benefits until after apartheid ended in 1994.

Nearby attractions include the Sun City resort, the Pilanesburg National Park and Hartbeespoort Dam.

AP