Johannesburg - South Africa has pulled out all the stops in building five new stadiums and upgrading five others for the World Cup. Initial fears that the new stadiums would not be completed on time for the tournament because of a late start to construction in some places and a series of worker strikes have come to naught.
With six months to go until kick-off, eight of the grounds are completed and the remaining two - Soccer City in Johannesburg and Cape Town Stadium - are within striking distance.
Visually, the 400,000 or so foreign visitors expected at the tournament are in for a treat.
From the calabash-shaped Soccer City showpiece in Johannesburg to Durban's arch-endowed Moses Mabhida stadium and Cape Town's exquisitely-appointed Greenpoint venue, South Africa is out to show that African and world-class - a buzzword here - are not incompatible.
To press home the point some of the stadiums have African-inspired designs or touches.
The calabash, which lends its shape to Soccer City, is a gourd- like vegetable that is hollowed out and used as a container for food or water.
"In essence the calabash represents Africa's great appreciation for life and is also indicative of our spirit of ubuntu (an African philosophy of shared humanity)," according to the City of Johannesburg.
The 89,000-seat venue, which was the most costly of the upgrades at 3.4 billion rand (459 million dollars), is covered in red and brown tiles that glow in the setting sun and at night is lit up from below by a "pit of fire", giving it the aspect of a simmering cauldron.
While the cooking pot is an apt symbol for Johannesburg as a melting pot of cultures, the giraffe inspired a key detail on Mbombela stadium in Nelspruit, capital of Mpumalanga province, in the lowveld (savanna).
Set in a rolling landscape of citrus orchards on the doorstep of Kruger National Park, the new, 1.3 billion-rand, 45,000-seat stadium is supported by 18 giant orange pylons in the shape of giraffes.
Africa's most recognizable tree, the baobab, features inthe design of a new stadium in northern Limpopo province. The four corner columns supporting the roof on Peter Mokaba Stadium, a 45,000-seat venue in Polokwane, represent the "upside-down tree" - although the similarities are not immediately obvious.
While there is nothing obviously African about Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban, the port city is hoping that the semi-final venue, which includes an athletics track and is part of a precinct including a 50-metre swimming pool, will host the first Olympic Games in Africa in 2024.
Situated on the shores of the Indian Ocean, the new 70,000-seat stadium is architecturally the most daring, being straddled by a central 106m high arch, which visitors can ascend in a cable car for a bird's eye view of the city - or a bungee jump, if they have the gumption.
As far as location goes, however, Cape Town's new Greenpoint stadium, or Cape Town Stadium as it has was recently renamed, sweeps the boards.
The 68,000-seater stadium, which will host several games including a semi-final game, is sandwiched between Table Mountain and the Atlantic Ocean with views across to Robben Island. At 4.5 billion rand it is the priciest of the 10 venues - the choice of location having added substantially to the bill.
The first of the new stadiums to be completed back in June, a whole year before the Cup, was Nelson Mandela Bay stadium in Port Elizabeth. The stadium is the first dedicated to football in the capital of Eastern Cape province and is named after South Africa's first black president, who hails from the area.
The 47,000-seat stadium which overlooks a lake and has a striking fluted roof, has already hosted several international rugby and football games this year.
Four other stadiums underwent smaller upgrades for the tournament: Ellis Park in Johannesburg, Loftus Versfeld in the capital Pretoria, the Royal Bafokeng Stadium outside the mining city of Rustenburg in North-West province and Free State Stadium in the central judicial capital of Bloemfontein.
Labour Research Service, a Cape Town-based trade union think-tank estimates the final bill for the 10 stadiums and related infrastructure will come out at 17.4 billion rand.
