Arch - Old Fort Traditional Geocache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
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Arch - Old Fort
This cache is part of a series of Architectural buildings and sites we have noticed that stand out from the rest. Some old, some new, a few well known while others are hidden away. The aim of this series is to raise awareness to the importance and diversity of architecture around us.
The fort, designed and built by President Paul Kruger's architect Sytze Wierda in 1896, was planned by Kruger to keep an eye on the burgeoning gold-mining town and the over-zealous uitlanders, who threatened to upset Kruger's relatively orderly Transvaal. It was not built to defend the town - guns faced towards the town - but in its 105-year history not a single shot was ever fired from its ramparts.
It was only after the war that the fort came into its own . . . as a prison, its primary function until the 1980s when it was finally closed. In the early 1900s it played horrible host to a range of people: Mahatma Gandhi, who was held within its walls four times between 1908 and 1913; the white mine workers in the 1922 Rand Revolt; the fascist Afrikaner movement of the 1942 Ossewabrandwag; the 1956 Treason trialists, including Oliver Tambo, Helen Joseph and Nelson Mandela, and those picked up from the 1976 student uprisings.
Over the past two years it's undergone a major transformation and is now the site of the country's Constitutional Court, with construction continuing on the site to eventually house a range of human rights organisations. It's notorious No 4 "Native Goal" is now a significant museum and the Old Fort is an exhibition, conference and function space, retaining its distressed look of peeling, high walls, enclosing courtyards and prison cells.
If you have time take a walk down the North Western stairs to the Constitution Hill buildings and exhibits. More info can be found at http://www.constitutionhill.org.za/ re open times and tour dates.
The cache is hidden in the south western corner of a rock wall (opposite the old fort exhibitions gate). There is a lot of security and workmen in the area so please take care when retrieving and replacing the cache.
We would recommend doing the cache during business hours Monday to Friday 8h00-16h00 Saturday 10h00-15h00.
IF CONFRONTED BY SECURITY INFORM THEM YOU ARE LOOKING FOR THE COFFEE SHOP OR VISITING THE CONSTITUTION HILL TOUR. THE CACHE IS HIDDEN IN A OPEN AREA WHERE THE PUBLIC ARE ALLOWED ACCESS.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
+- 1500zz nobir tebhaq, va n penpx va gur jnyy, zvpeb pbagnvare. Ybbx pnershyyl, vg vf jryy-uvqqra. TCF onggyrf gb or npphengr va guvf nern.