The body of Archbishop Desmond Tutu was carried Thursday into a historic cathedral where he once railed against white rule to allow South ­Africans to bid farewell to the anti-apartheid icon.

The tireless spiritual and political leader who died peacefully at 90 on Boxing Day, will be cremated and his ashes buried on New Year's Day.

Tutu will lie in state at the Anglican Church's St George's Cathedral in Cape Town throughout Thursday and Friday to allow as many people as possible to say their final goodbyes to the much loved clergy and rights advocate.

Tutu's lying in state had been extended to two days "for fear there might be a stampede," Reverend Gilmore Fry told AFP outside the church while waiting for the body to arrive.

Following a private cremation, Tutu's ashes will be interred inside his stonewalled former parish - where he preached for many years - and where bells have been ringing in his memory for 10 minutes at midday every day since Monday.

The country's multi-colored national flag is flying at half-mast across South Africa.

Several ceremonies are taking place across the country every day until the funeral.

"He wanted no ostentatiousness or lavish spending," said his foundation.

Weakened by advanced age and prostate cancer, the Nobel Peace laureate had retired from public life in recent years.

He retired in 1996 to lead a harrowing journey into South Africa's dark past as chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which exposed the horrors of apartheid in terrible detail.