Cape of Good Hope- this is a place on the very edge of the southwestern coast of Africa, the meeting place of two oceans - the Indian and Atlantic.

Discovery of the Cape of Good Hope.

The Cape of Good Hope was discovered by the Portuguese navigator Bartolomeu Dias. This event took place in 1488. The navigator needed to find the shortest route to the shores of India. He never reached the final point of his route, but he turned out to be the first of the European navigators to circumnavigate the African continent from the southern side. His ship was caught in severe storms that did not subside for several days. When calm came, Dias sailed further north, opening the way to the Indian Ocean. But his crew, after the experience, did not want to sail further and Dias had to turn the ship in the opposite direction. Returning, he saw a cape that protruded from the sea and called it the Cape of Storms. However, the Portuguese king João 2 renamed it the Cape of Good Hope, hoping for an open sea route to India. A few years later, another Portuguese navigator, Vasco da Gama, sailed to the Indian coast, rounding the Cape of Good Hope.


Lighthouse

The Cape of Good Hope is not a very hospitable place for ships sailing here. Strong winds, storms and frequent fogs made navigation in these places unsafe. The coastal rocks are very similar to each other, and because of this, sailors often strayed from the desired course. In addition, sometimes icebergs float into these waters and a collision with them could lead to a shipwreck. In the mid-19th century, the authorities decided to build a lighthouse so that ships could find their way to the harbor. The lighthouse was built on Mount Cape Point, which is located near the Cape of Good Hope at an altitude of 270 meters. From this place the lighthouse was visible at a distance of 80 km. But the English engineers who designed this structure did not take into account one feature. The top of the mountain on which the lighthouse is located was often obscured by clouds. For this reason, the lighthouse was of no use. He worked at that very place for about half a century, but several shipwrecks forced the authorities to think about this problem. The last straw was the disaster of a Portuguese liner that hit a reef. Fortunately, almost all passengers managed to escape. The lighthouse was closed. Nowadays, it serves as a museum and observation deck, which offers stunning views of the endless ocean.

The new lighthouse is located at an altitude of 88 meters and is visible from a distance of 40 km. It began to bring much more benefits, and shipwrecks in these places stopped. Today there is a restaurant there, accessible by cable car.


Fauna

In addition to typical African inhabitants such as monkeys, cheetahs and antelopes, you can see penguins here! The spectacled penguin, which once migrated from Antarctica, feels great in its new conditions. The cold waters of the Bengal Current save birds from the heat. The sizes of spectacled penguins are not large: height is about 65-70 cm, and weight is 3-5 kg. They feed mainly on small fish. The species is on the verge of extinction and is therefore listed in the Red Book. The enemies of spectacled penguins are humans, sharks, seagulls and fur seals, which also sailed to the very south of Africa from Antarctica.


Flying Dutchman

The Cape of Good Hope is mentioned in the legend of the Flying Dutchman, a legendary ghost ship doomed to suffer forever to sail the vastness of the world's oceans. According to one version of the legend, a Dutch ship returning from the East Indies was caught in a strong storm near the Cape of Good Hope. The sailors offered to wait out the bad weather in a bay near the shore, but the captain was adamant. He swore that no member of the ship would come ashore until the ship had rounded the cape, thereby bringing a curse upon the ship and its crew.

Information for tourists.

You can get to the Cape of Good Hope by train from Cape Town to Simon's Town. Travel time will take about an hour and then a few minutes by taxi to Boulders Beach.

In 1488, the traveler B. Dias discovered a cape previously unknown to geographers and named it Cape of Storms, or in Portuguese Cabo das Tormentas. Somewhat later, João II decided to rename it the Cape of Good Hope, which was connected with the cherished dream of the Portuguese ruler to reach distant India from this starting point. As the locals say, two giant oceans “meet” at this cape – the Atlantic and Indian. In the second half of the 19th century, it was decided to build a lighthouse on the cape, which would warn sailors at night about the proximity of land. This historical monument can still be seen now; it is one of the few attractions of the territory we are describing that attract hundreds of tourists from all over the globe. You can get to the lighthouse on foot or by cable car, the ticket for which is relatively inexpensive. If, after everything described above, a picture appears in your imagination that shows a deserted area with a lonely towering lighthouse, then you are mistaken. On the territory of the Cape of Good Hope, which, by the way, is 7,750 hectares, there are many different trees, shrubs and other “representatives” of fauna. There is even official data that this territory contains the largest number of plants in the world per hectare of land. But that's not all. While at the Cape of Good Hope, you can observe the natural way of life of baboons, monkeys, ostriches, leopards, wildebeest, cheetahs and other animals. Along the seashore there are hundreds of penguin nests, which are so accustomed to the attention of overseas guests that they practically do not pay any attention to their presence. After the walk, if you wish, you can get acquainted with traditional cuisine in a nearby restaurant, as well as visit a souvenir shop. This historical reserve is open daily.

To find the Cape of Good Hope, sailors set out on their journey more than once, suffered failures and wrecks, but did not stop searching - the road to India must be open. It was the rocky cape, which is the most extreme point in southwest Africa, the place where the waters of two oceans collide with each other, forming a seething white stripe crashing against the rocks, that opened the way for them to Asia.

The Cape of Good Hope is located in Africa and is the southernmost part of the Cape Peninsula, from where it turns north and after forty-five meters abuts Cape Point, at the foot of which, on the opposite side, begins False Bay, whose waters are heated by the warm current of the Indian Ocean .

The temperature of both air and water in the east of the peninsula is much warmer than on its western side, where the Benguela Current flows from Antarctica. True, the winds blow stronger here and tourists are rarely allowed to calmly soak up the warm rays.

Despite the fact that the Cape of Good Hope has long been considered the most extreme point of Africa, it is actually Cape Agulhas (on the map it is located more than one hundred and fifty kilometers in a southeast direction).

This cape is notable for the fact that from here the African coast turns east for the first time and opens a passage between the Atlantic and Indian oceans (you can accurately calculate where the Cape of Good Hope is on the map using the following coordinates: 34° 21′ 32.88″ S. , 18° 28′ 21.06″ E).

History of discovery

The Cape of Good Hope was discovered at the end of the 15th century. Portuguese Bartolomeu Dias, to whom the king set a specific task. It was necessary to find out whether it was possible to go around Africa from the south and get to India. For his country, located in western Europe, it was extremely costly to organize land expeditions to Asia.

The discovery of the Cape of Good Hope happened by accident, and unexpected help was provided by a terrifying storm that mercilessly tossed the Portuguese ships for several days: when the ocean calmed down, it turned out that Dias had no idea where the bad weather had taken him. He randomly went north and after some time found himself off the coast of Africa, which turned in an easterly direction.

True, he did not sail further: provisions were running out, the ships were in poor condition, and the crew rebelled. They decided to return home, and on the way he noticed a cape, rounding which he saw that the coast of Africa stretches north, home.

It is interesting that initially, having seen the ocean waves beating against high rocks, he decided to call this piece of land the Cape of Storms.

But the king of Portugal did not like the ominous name, and he gave it a more optimistic name - the Cape of Good Hope, hoping that the road to India had really been discovered. His hope was justified: a few years later, Vasco da Gama, having passed the Cape of Good Hope, sailed to India.

Cape lighthouses

Calling the rocky area of ​​land protruding into the sea Cape Storms, Dias gave it a fairly accurate name: strong currents, winds, storms, fogs, and sometimes icebergs floating into this area led to the wreck of a huge number of ships. An important role in this was played by the fact that the rocks along the coast were not only similar to each other, but also often shrouded in fog.

This often threw sailors sailing from India off course: they turned north ahead of time and ended up in False Bay.

If they were lucky, the ships would hit the sandy shore, but mostly they would just crash on the rocks. This bay is notable for the fact that it is not always possible to get out of it on a sailing ship - despite the fact that it is very windy here, you can easily spend almost six months here waiting for a suitable air flow.


Despite all these circumstances, the authorities on the cape built a lighthouse only in the middle of the 19th century. - and then, after during one of the inspections, inspectors noticed icebergs floating towards the coast. Ice blocks off the coast of Africa shocked them so much that the decision to build a lighthouse and observation post here was made almost immediately. It was built on the nearby Cape Point Mountain, which offers a magnificent view of the Cape of Good Hope.

Lighthouse No. 1

Construction of the first lighthouse was completed in 1860. It was located at an altitude of 270 m - and it could be seen from a distance of 80 km. There was one “but”: it was designed in Britain, so the British, unfamiliar with the climatic features of southern Africa, did not take into account one detail: the top of the mountain on which it was decided to install the structure was often shrouded in clouds at night, making the lighthouse absolutely useless. At the same time, it “served” for about half a century, until journalists paid attention to the problem.

The first case that attracted widespread public attention was the wreck in 1900 of the newest steamship Cockapoo, which was heading from Britain to New Zealand. Deceived by the lighthouse and low clouds, the captain gave the wrong command, as a result of which a high tidal wave threw the ship onto the coast. The authorities managed to hush up this story, accusing the captain of negligence.

But the crash that happened eleven years later could not be silenced: the huge Portuguese liner Lusitania hit a reef a few kilometers from a working, but completely obscured by clouds, lighthouse. It was possible to save the passengers (there were almost eight hundred people on the ship) only because the ship sat very firmly on the reef, which gave time to launch all the rescue boats.


The lighthouse keeper, having received the distress signal, came down with a lit lantern, orienting the liner's crew and allowing almost all the boats to land safely on the shore, except one (it capsized and four of its passengers died). The decision to build a second lighthouse was made, but this one was closed and now serves as a museum, with magnificent views from the observation deck.

Lighthouse No. 2

Despite the fact that the new lighthouse is located lower, at an altitude of 88 meters, and can be seen at a shorter distance, 40 km, its benefits were much greater - shipwrecks in this area were almost reduced to zero. At the end of the 20th century, an electric cable was laid to the lighthouse, restaurants were erected, a funicular was installed leading from the parking lot to the top of the mountain adjacent to the cape, Cane Point, and after conducting an appropriate advertising campaign, they gave impetus to the development of a successful tourism business.

National Park

The Cape of Good Hope is separated from the second most populous city in South Africa, Cape Town, by almost seventy kilometers, and therefore you can get from the capital of the Western Cape Province, armed with a map, by car on a very good road in four hours.

The road will not seem boring, since the path here lies through the Table Mountain National Park, whose area exceeds 7 thousand hectares, and it is distinguished by extremely lush vegetation.

The fauna of the reserve is also interesting: next to monkeys, ostriches, antelopes and cheetahs, spectacled penguins and fur seals feel great here, which not only sailed here from Antarctica, but also managed to adapt to the conditions of local life.

Spectacled penguins

Penguins live on the west coast called Boulders Beach. It was no coincidence that they chose this place of residence: the cold waters of the Bengal Current help the birds endure the heat - they spend most of their time in the water. And only during nesting, in winter, when the air temperature becomes more or less optimal, do they stay on land for a long time. Interestingly, they hatch their eggs in burrows that they dig in the decomposed remains of bird droppings, which helps protect the eggs from overheating.

They are enabled to maintain optimal body temperature by pink-colored markings located above the eyes and acting as a kind of air conditioner: when birds become very hot, heated blood begins to flow faster to the markings, where, thanks to the thin skin, it quickly cools.

Seal Island

Sometimes fur seals rest near the cape, having swam here from their rookery, located on a small island, immediately behind the lighthouse, in False Bay (about 75 thousand animals live on it). Such a huge colony could not help but attract the attention of white sharks constantly swimming into this bay.

Therefore, from May to September, the island of fur seals is literally surrounded by predators who patiently wait for prey, and as soon as they see an opportunity, they jump out and grab the seal with their teeth and go to the bottom. Interestingly, False Bay is the only place in the world where sharks jump completely out of the water while hunting.

The Cape of Good Hope juts into the ocean with its sharp and inaccessible rocks. This place can rightly be called the end of the world. Children and travelers love everything, the best, the best... and many, going on a tour of South Africa, are convinced that the Cape of Good Hope is the southernmost point in the world. However, this is not quite true.

The southernmost point of the world is located in Africa, just 250 km from the city of Cape Town and is called Cape Agulhas. If you have already gone on a trip to South Africa, then be sure to take the time and look here at Cape Agulhas. Being among the raging sea and harsh rocks, you will undoubtedly get an unforgettable experience of visiting the edge of the earth and the southernmost point of the world. In addition, there is an old lighthouse on the cape, built in 1848, which you can take this opportunity to explore.

The Cape of Good Hope can also rightfully be called the end of the world. But still, this is only one of the southernmost points of the world, although it is very beautiful. It attracts travelers from all over the world like a magnet. The first European to arrive here in 1488 was the Portuguese navigator Bartolomeu Dias. And this name was given to the cape by King Juan II of Portugal, probably because this piece of land gave hope to the Portuguese to soon reach the coast of India by sea.

Another Portuguese traveler, Vasco da Gama, continuing his search for India, was the first to circumnavigate Africa and place the first Christian cross on the dark continent. Francis Drake, an English navigator who made his voyage around the world in the 16th century, wrote about the Cape of Good Hope: “This is the most beautiful cape on all earth!” However, today this beautiful headland has signs written only in English.

The Cape of Good Hope today is a protected area and is part of Table Mountain National Park. Therefore, you can only get to the cape as part of an organized excursion. Most often, tours offer a trip to Cape Point, however, you may miss a lot of interesting things.

Therefore, experienced travelers are advised to get to Cape Town on their own. On the way, we recommend stopping by the small port city of Simon, which is located on the shores of the False Bay. The bay was called False Bay because it is very similar to Table Bay and the ships mistakenly entered the wrong place.

False Bay is primarily visited by those tourists who are not indifferent to animals. After all, there is an island of fur seals, next to which you can often see swimming whales and, very close, a penguin beach (more than 3,000 individuals). This species is found in South Africa.

From here, the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve is very close, just 10 km along an excellent road. By the way, when going on a trip, do not forget to stock up on drinking water and a hat.

The end of the world, photo.

Having made this journey with us, you now know exactly where the edge of the world is and where the southernmost point of the earth is. Have a pleasant and exciting journey!

Cape of Good Hope, map:

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Video: The end of the world or look at the Cape of Good Hope.


The Cape of Good Hope is located on the Cape Peninsula south of one of the largest cities in South Africa. Once upon a time it had the name Cape of Storms and this is quite justified. After all, strong currents, storms, winds and fog are inseparable companions of this place, and icebergs often float here; all this at different times led to the death of a dozen ships.

Why was it called the Cape of Good Hope?

The navigator who discovered the Cape of Good Hope in Africa was named Bartolomeu Dias; on the orders of the Portuguese king, he went in search of a sea route to India around Africa. Another storm confused the explorer's plans, and he lost his bearings, so, trusting his intuition, he went north, where he met the cape, giving it the name of the cause of his disaster. The ship was too damaged and the crew mutinied, so even after seeing the beginning of the journey to the Indian Ocean, Dias was forced to turn back. In 1497, Vasco da Gama was sent to pave the way to the Indian coast, and since his journey was fueled not only by responsibility, but also by hope, the cape was immediately renamed the Cape of Good Hope.

Holidays on the Cape

At the moment, the Cape of Good Hope is one of the most famous national parks in the world. This is the place where the Atlantic and Indian oceans connect, so this is the point on the globe where you can visit two different oceans at the same time.

The Cape of Good Hope is located in the south of the Cape Peninsula, near Cape Point, at the foot of which it originates, where the water is much warmer than other water basins in the area. The water of the bay is heated by warm currents of the Indian Ocean. Therefore, the beaches near the cape are always filled with people.

In addition, not far from the cape there is the National Park, which captivates with its flora and fauna; many amazing animals live there - from monkeys to penguins.

How to get there?

For a very long time, the Cape of Good Hope was considered the southern point of Africa, so finding it on the world map is quite simple, because this information is captured in the form of exact coordinates on a sign installed on the site in front of the cape. There is a city near the Cape of Good Hope