Bloemfontein was founded in 1846 and today has a population of around half a million people.J. R. R. Tolkien, author of '''The Lord of the Rings''' was born in Bloemfontein in 1892.In 1923, the African National Congress (ANC) political party was founded in Bloemfontein. http://wikitravel.org/en/Bloemfontein