Between two oceans: the Cape of Good Hope

• Between two oceans: the Cape of Good Hope

Often, the Cape of Good Hope at the southern mistakenly called point of Africa. In fact, the most southern point - Cape Agulhas, located 155 km to the southeast. Cape of Good Hope - one of the most important strategic targets of the African continent. Previously, he was a reference point for merchant ships traveling from Europe to the Far East. Now it is a popular tourist destination, enjoy the scenery which millions of travelers come each year from around the world.

The Cape of Good Hope is the embodiment of the hopes of the Portuguese navigators in the 15th century who sought a way to India. In 1488, it opened the explorer Bartolomeu Dias. Caught in a heavy storm, the ships a few days wandering in the ocean, and then ran into the cape. In memory of the storm sailor named it Cape Burm, but King John II it was very superstitious, and issued a decree to rename it.

The Cape of Good Hope - a psychologically important level, breaking that, navigator moves more in the east than in the south.

There are two oceans meet: the warm Indian and cold Atlantic.

This is one of the highest sea cliffs in the world - its height is about 250 meters.

The most south-westerly point of Africa.

The Cape is located in the National Park Table Mountain National Park, 50 km from Cape Town, South Africa, the second largest population of the city.

Yet the main attraction in the vicinity of "the most south-western point of Africa" is not the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point: nearby cape with picturesque rocks and lighthouse on top.

The Cape of Good Hope is not a very hospitable place for sailing ships here. Fogs, icebergs, coastal cliffs and frequent storms - all this made navigation extremely difficult.

In order to secure the navigation was in 1860 on a rock Cape Point lighthouse was built, but all the problems that did not solve: the engineers underestimated the local meteorological specifics - located at an altitude of 270 meters above sea beacon level, despite record for its time, the luminosity simply was not visible because of the rising straight from the slopes of the mountains of clouds. moisture-laden air rises and hid flashing lights at any time of the year /

He worked in the same place about half a century, but a few shipwrecks forced the authorities to think about the problem. The last straw was a disaster of the Portuguese liner, flown on the reefs. The lighthouse was closed and today it serves as a museum and an observation deck.

The new lighthouse is located below, at a height of 88 meters and is visible from a distance it is 40 km away, but he was good to bring a lot more, and shipwrecks in this area ceased.

It is believed that the very first mailbox in the world have appeared at the Cape of Good Hope.

During the voyage in 1500 the squadron Diaz came in a very strong storm. Then I managed to save only one ship. Diaz knew that the Cape, where they were thrown, can not be a place of life, and that he and his team will have to go further. But at the same time he knew and how dangerous is an upcoming trip. And then was made the original decision - all that has happened with the squadron, recorded on paper, we took an ordinary shoe, folded back the manuscript and hanged on a tree. Diaz hoped that soon the shoe will find and read the note. And so it happened. Less than a year later Portuguese sailors discovered the tree shoe, which, in fact, was the first mailbox in the world.