Pietermaritzburg
City in South Africa: population, location, elevation, climate and landmarks.
Pietermaritzburg: Vasiliymeshko, CC BY 3.0 (Wikimedia Commons)
Overview
Pietermaritzburg is a city in South Africa, in KwaZulu-Natal. About 839,327 people live in the city proper, making it the 8th largest city of South Africa in our atlas.
It lies at 29.62° S, 30.39° E, about 636 m (2,087 ft) above sea level, and keeps time on the Africa/Johannesburg time zone.
Location
Red dot: Pietermaritzburg. Green dots: other major cities of South Africa. Map data: Natural Earth.
Climate
Pietermaritzburg has a temperate oceanic climate (Köppen Cfb). The warmest month is usually Jan, with average highs near 27°C (80°F); the coolest nights come in Jul at about 6°C (43°F). Around 1,169 mm (46 in) of rain and snow falls in a typical year, most of it in Jan.
Bars: average daily high and low (°C) for each month; blue columns and figures: average precipitation (mm). Gridded 2001-2025 averages from NASA POWER, so mountain and coastal spots can differ from local station records.
Landmarks and places to see
Popular sights within a few kilometres of the city centre, ranked by how widely they are documented on Wikipedia.
What to eat in South AfricaNational dishes, street food, desserts and drinks on Intercontinental Chef.Nearby major cities
- Durban · 67 km
- Vereeniging · 404 km
- Bloemfontein · 407 km
- Evaton · 421 km
- Benoni · 430 km
- Boksburg · 430 km
- Johannesburg · 442 km
- Soweto · 445 km
- Population, coordinates, elevation, time zone: GeoNames 965301 (CC BY 4.0)
- Wikidata Q185591 (CC0)
- Climate: NASA POWER 2001-2025 climatology
Text written by Geographical Effect from these sources.
- Pietermaritzburg: Vasiliymeshko, CC BY 3.0 (Wikimedia Commons)
- CityOval Pietermaritzburg: Reddit user: /u/ThisIsABadNameChoice, Public domain (Wikimedia Commons)
