The World’s Most Beautiful Pier
In the first weeks of January, the world remains hushed. Many are still away on holiday, others drifting slowly back to their routines, while those who stayed behind savour the calm. I took advantage of this lull to spend a few days in uMhlanga before the year truly began.
As a travel journalist, I can’t help but seek out interesting places and experiences wherever I go. I was surprised to discover, during my research, that the world’s most beautiful pier is said to be in uMhlanga, and I set out to see it for myself.
Stretching 80 metres out into the Indian Ocean, the Whalebone Pier is one of those places that quietly blows you away. In 2014, CNN crowned it the world’s most beautiful pier – pretty impressive for a structure made mostly of concrete and metal. That same year, Durban was named one of the world’s most underrated cities, which somehow makes the story even better.
The pier wasn’t originally designed as a tourist attraction at all. It began life as a very practical solution to a stormwater problem. The municipality needed a way to channel stormwater safely out to sea, well beyond the high-water mark, and brought in architect André Duvenage from the Architects Collaborative to figure it out.
What he came up with is quietly genius. From the outside, the pier looks sleek – almost like a shallow boat hull – but inside it actually carries stormwater from the culvert all the way to the ocean. At the far end, the water spills out dramatically beyond the last column into a natural gully in the surf zone. On dry days, when there’s barely any flow, the water simply disappears down a discreet tube in the final column.
Above all of this sits a generous public walkway. The deck widens as you move seaward, ending in a 7.5-metre cantilevered viewing platform that offers spectacular views of the coastline, with Durban shimmering in the distance.
One of the pier’s most striking features is how lightly it touches the beach. It rests on just six widely spaced columns, leaving plenty of open space beneath for beachgoers. Wrapped around the structure are rib-like beams that stiffen the pier and give it its unmistakable sculptural feel.
Then there are the “whale bones.” Sixteen pairs of arched masts rise up along the pier, growing taller and drawing closer together toward the end. While everyone now calls them whale bones, Duvenage originally had a broader nautical theme in mind – something reminiscent of a sea creature’s skeleton. Made from glass-reinforced polyester, the masts are strong, lightweight, and perfectly suited to the harsh marine environment. Their greeny-bronze colour comes from a powdered metal pigment designed to mimic the verdigris of weathered copper.
The attention to detail continues everywhere you look. Handrails and stanchions were made using advanced composite materials, and the lighting uses LED technology that was cutting-edge at the time. More recently, the lighting was upgraded again to improve colour and maintenance, with blue LED accents mounted between the arches to preserve the pier’s iconic nighttime glow.
Underfoot, the deck is full of visual surprises: pigment-coloured concrete, cobblestones, fossil-imprint details, and marine-themed edging. And in recent years, 18 beautiful mosaic artworks have been added beneath the pier, each celebrating sea life found along the KwaZulu-Natal coast. Created by artist Kirsten Miller and a team of volunteers and fellow artists – including learners from the Action in Autism school – the mosaics feature whales, dolphins, and even a black-tip shark. At night, they practically dance under the lights.
Built by Esor Construction, the project went on to win multiple engineering and design awards, both locally and nationally – well deserved, given how seamlessly it blends function, art, and public space.
I was genuinely surprised by how neat, well-kept, and welcoming it feels. Between the glowing lights, the mosaic art, and the endless ocean views, it’s easy to see why this pier remains one of the most photographed and loved landmarks in the region. If you’re anywhere near uMhlanga, it’s absolutely worth a visit.
Jacqui Ikin & The Cross Country Team
