The East London Museum features permanent human and natural history exhibits, including the only Dodo egg in the world, the very first coelacanth – discovered off the East London coast, and the oldest human footprints ever found – 124 000 year old trace footprints found in rock at Nahoon Point near East London.
Some other unusual features include a live beehive and East London river harbour exhibits.
The museum is considered one of South Africa’s best museums and is a great place to take the kids, on a rainy day or if you have too much sun on the beach – if only to see the bizarre coelacanth specimen. This fish species was previously only known from fossil records and was thought to have become exctinct 80 million years ago, until a fisherman hauled up a live one off the East London coast in 1938. Read more about the amazing discovery of a “living fossil” that shared the oceans 100 million years ago with dinosaurs and giant sharks.
Getting there: The East London Museum is situated in the East London CBD on Oxford St.
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