Francistown

A former gold mining town, today important centre of communication and traffic hub.

Francistown is the second largest town of Botswana and has approximately 99,000 inhabitants.

About 80,000 years ago the ancestors of the San already occupied the area, which was probably a nice and quiet place then.

That changed rather abruptly when gold was discovered here in 1868. The Briton, Daniel Francis after whom the town was named later, secured the first mining rights from the local Bantu tribe, the Matabele, and founded the Tati Concessions.

The town’s development progressed steadily and as of 1897 the present Francistown emerged.  Apart from the gold the town was also a centre for railway transportations, as it is connected to the main route in Botswana. The gold mines are not active anymore, but there are other minerals mined today.

Chemistry industry, abattoirs, shoe and textile industries are just some of the economic focal points.

As Francis Town is situated at the border to Zimbabwe and along the main roads A1, A3 and A30 it forms an important traffic hub.

However, Francis Town does not have a lot of touristic highlights to offer. Nonetheless, visitor numbers are high as the Makgadikgadi Pans and the Tuli Block are easily reachable from here.