History of Ceres

Ceres is the largest town of the Witzenberg Local Municipality in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. Ceres as a Town was established in 1854.

The first inhabitants of the Ceres area were the San and the Koi while the first Europeans estableshed settled from 1729 onwards. San Rock paintings can still be found in the area of Ceres. Stock farming was mostly established in the Ceres area and later fruit farming became very popular.

Ceres experiences a typical Mediterranean climate. The town experiences warmer temperatures in summer, due to its inland location with infrequent rainfall, however winters are cool to quite cold and wet, with frequent snowfalls on the surrounding higher-lying ground. The Warmbokkeveld is climatically warmer than the surrounding highlands, which is known as the Kouebokkeveld ("cold antelope field"), with the latter often experiencing snowfalls in winter.

On the 29th of September 1969 a massive earth quak shook the district without warning. The epicentre of the quake was on a major local structure called the Worcester fault, which had clearly been geologically active in the distant past but had not moved in over three hundred years of recorded history. Ceres was affected badly. Many old Cape Dutch buildings were damaged and some lives were lost.

Modern Ceres

Ceres is well known for fruit juices exported worldwide bearing the town's name. It is also famous locally for winter snow and cherries. Cape Town residents flock to the town during winter. The nature arround Ceres are beautiful and things to do include zip line slides, hiking and 4x4 driving.