Durban

South Africa's third most populous city after Johannesburg and Cape Town is Durban, which is also the biggest city in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal. Durban is also known as the "Durbs" by locals. Durban is a part of the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality, which includes neighbouring towns and has a combined population of approximately 3.44 million people, making it one of the largest cities on the African continent's Indian Ocean coast. Durban is the capital of the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality. The 2010 FIFA World Cup was held in Durban, which was one of the host cities.

It has been estimated that the Durban region has been occupied by hunter-gatherer tribes from 100,000 BC based on archaeological evidence from the Drakensberg mountains. These people existed across the province of KwaZulu-Natal until the arrival of Bantu farmers and pastoralists from the north, which resulted in their progressive displacement, integration, or extinction as a result of the growth of Bantu farmers and pastoralists. The Zulu nation, who were the original inhabitants of the land before colonisers arrived, have passed down oral history from generation to generation, but there is no written history of the area until it was discovered by Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama, who sailed parallel to the KwaZulu-Natal coast at Christmastide in 1497 while searching for a route from Europe to India. The region was given the name "Natal," which means "Christmas" in Portuguese.