Cape Town, South Africa

If Americans were asked what cities in South Africa they could name, Johannesburg would win in a rout.  Cape Town probably would be in second place by a good margin. Those are the two biggest cities in the country. 

Most people might not know that Cape Town has almost five million people in its territory. That's a big-league city by most standards. My guess is that the economy is a little weaker than most cities of its size. In other words, it punches a bit below its weight. But the nice parts of town are quite nice and modern. Household income leads the country, while unemployment is relatively low here too. Cape Town has a chance to do even better in the near future. 

A European first sailed by the area in 1488, and Vasco Da Gama - there's a name from our junior high school past - took a look in 1497. The Dutch settled here about 50 years later, and the British took over in 1814.