Paarl (/ˈpɑːrl/; Afrikaans: [ˈpæːrəl];[3] derived from parel, meaning "pearl" in Dutch[4]) is a town with 285,574 inhabitants in the Western Cape province of South Africa.

[citation needed] Paarl is a colonial town founded by Dutch colonists who seized Khoikhoi lands.

Paarl is the seat of the Drakenstein Local Municipality; although not part of the Cape Town metropolitan area, it falls within its economic catchment.

Paarl gained additional international attention when, on 11 February 1990, Nelson Mandela walked, with live international television coverage, out of Victor Verster Correctional Centre (now known as Drakenstein Correctional Centre) in Paarl ending his 27 years of imprisonment, and beginning a course to South Africa's post-apartheid era and, notably, to multi-racial elections.

[6] The Dutch East India Company, under the leadership of Jan van Riebeeck, established meat-trading relationships with the Khoikhoi people on the Table Bay coastline.

In 1687, Governor Simon van der Stel gave the title to the first colonial farms in the area to "free burghers".

[8] Thus began Paarl's long and continuing history as a major wine- and fruit-producing area of South Africa.

[6] In the 2001 census Paarl's population was recorded as being 82,713 people in 20,138 households, in a land area of 32.2 square kilometres (12.4 sq mi).

[citation needed] Paarl was the place where the foundations of the Afrikaans language were laid by the Genootskap van Regte Afrikaners.

KWV became a South African institution that has acquired an international reputation based on its unique achievements and its imprint of quality on the local wine industry.

Over the past decade, however, KWV has been privatized and no longer has an administrative role in the South African wine industry.

[11] The old Spice Route Paarl, which was initiated in 1997 by Charles Back, the owner of this estate as well as of Fairview, provides an opportunity for visitors to appreciate and taste local delicacies from the Western Cape.

[citation needed] However, in the pioneering period of rock climbing in South Africa, the mountain was ignored or shunned because its steep faces were so smooth and unfissured that climbers could find no place to attach "runners" or anchor points for belays.

The first climbing routes up the rock were pioneered in 1969 by J. W. Marchant and G. Athiros, the former from the University of Cape Town Mountain and Ski Club.

[citation needed] Nowadays protection is afforded by bolts in the granite, and there are on Paarl Rock a few dozen routes that attract the best climbers of the current generation.

Paarl Girls' High was placed 17th in the National Senior Certificate's "Excellence in academic performance" awards in 2012.

Bridge House, listed as one of the most expensive independent schools in South Africa, offers boarding facilities.

The R301 (Jan van Riebeeck Drive) runs from Franschhoek (via the R45) in the south-west to Mbekweni and Wellington in the north and over the Bainskloof Pass to Ceres in the north-west (via the R43).

They were published in the Cape Province's Official Gazette in 1955, re-granted by the provincial administrator in 1967, and certified by the Bureau of Heraldry in 1969.