Reasons to Visit National Monuments

When planning your list of things to do the next time you travel, don’t forget to include a couple of national monuments.

National monuments are tourist attractions all around the world. Despite this, they are rarely conversation starters when we share our travel experiences. Although, most of us will tolerate the guided historical tours, and take photographs in front of the placards that state the site is of historical significance; we’re only going to be posting the glamorous reminders of the trip. Photos outside of a hotel are more appealing than outside of a museum or even an art gallery for that matter.

While it may not be glamorous, we’ll share the photo of Table Mountain, to make sure our audience knows where we were, but little interest is taken into who lives around Table Mountain and who actually enjoys hiking there. Yet, this is an important part of its history. To the extent that the property values in Cape Town are influenced by the proximity to the mountain. This means all the activity around the mountain has some degree of significance to the historical context.

National monuments serve as reminders and punctuation marks in history. Learning about the surroundings near the mountain gives a visitor a better understanding of why Capetownians relate to one another the way they do. Visiting monuments and museums in the vicinity of Table Mountains sheds light on events and individuals who have contributed to how we experience the city today.

Understanding monuments as tributes to the events and figures who have shaped the course of our lives, today's, makes experiencing new spaces and countries more personal. It’s a reminder of the power every individual and decisions have. This is what distinguishes the human spirit and consequently transcends difference across racial, ethnic and gender dillineations.

Recently, I found a monument near a shopping mall- an unusual, but welcomed surprise. Why should monuments be hidden or removed from busy spaces where people enjoy gathering? The statues of the 4 Nobel Prize winners, at the V & A Waterfront, allow you to take in the environment, and learn of the history casually. And casual is just something we don’t associate with history, but this is what keeps so many people outside of museums, and disinterested in the greater significance of national monuments.

Interacting with history through monuments and statues gives us a greater appreciation for where we stand. Although the Eiffel Tower was an eye-sore building it was a huge feat. It’s remained standing for reasons beyond aesthetics, and as a result perceptions of it changed with time. For us, in South Africa, these monuments rarely hold the same sort of significance.

Statues built to honour significant historical figures often serve as tributes that are simultaneously harrowing reminders of events we’d prefer to forget. But it’s probably good that we should be reminded not to forget what people with means and authority are capable of doing even with good intentions. Being able to experience such monuments in casual environments creates conducive conditions for difficult historical lessons to be engaged with meaningfully and repeatedly where necessary.

While protests are often in favour of the removal of statues, I strongly believe that it would be more valuable to add to environments in which these statues are present. Creating more interactive environments around these markers in public spaces is a great solution to promoting social cohesion, and public engagement about what matters most to societies. Through these engagements, a better perspective of history can be gained and it seems more likely that we would learn from history under these conditions.

So, make it a point to include visiting monuments and museums on your next trip to better understand why the locals live the way they do.