Cape Town

Located on the shore of a natural inlet of the Atlantic Ocean called the Table Bay, Cape Town is a prominent tourist destination in South Africa. Legendary African leader and South African President Nelson Mandela was kept imprisoned for decades in an island known as Robben Island in the Table Bay, seven kilometers off the coast of Cape Town. The island and nearby Whale Rock attract many tourists who go there not only to visit the inglorious prison cell but also to view the surf of the open Atlantic Ocean thundering ceaselessly against its margins where many ships had perished during the earlier days. Rumor has it that a Dutch ship laden with thousands of gold coins disintegrated here many years ago while a few coins are often found washed ashore on windy nights.

Originally developed by the Dutch East India Company way back in 1652 as a supply station for sailing ships going to Eastern Africa, India and the Far East, Cape Town today is a sprawling metropolis with captivating features that include the Table Mountain National Park, Cape Point, Signal Hill, Chapman’s Peak Drive and many more.

The Table Mountain National Park, earlier known as the Cape Peninsula National Park contains two distinctive landmarks – the Table Mountain for which the park is named and the Cape of Good Hope, the southernmost extremity of Africa. Visitors wishing to go up the mountain can either hike all the way to the top or take the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway (TMAC) to reach the so called table top. The TMAC also happens to be the most popular tourist attraction of Cape Town whose lower cable station is situated at Tafelberg Road near the Kloof Nek. Its upper cable station stands at the westernmost end of the Table Mountain plateau at an altitude of 1067 m, offering panoramic views of Cape Town, Table Bay and the Robben Island to the north and the Atlantic seaboard to the south and west.

Here are some of the major tourist attractions of Cape Town

• Cape point is located within the southern part of the Table Mountain National Park which is accessible from the Cape of Good Hope side. It is amazingly rich in numerous kinds of flowering plants and has largely remained unspoilt even though it is located quite near to the bustling port city of Cape Town. There are two lighthouses on Cape Point, the higher of which can be reached by the Flying Dutchman, a funicular that can transport up to 600 people at a time.

• Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa that was once believed to be the diving point between the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean. The Oceans, however, actually meet at the site where the warm water (Aqulhas current) clashes with the cold-water (Banquela current) and then turns back on itself – a point that oscillates between Cape Agulhas and Cape Point, around a kilometer from the Cape of Good Hope.

• Boulders Beach located in the Cape Peninsula, near the Simon’s Town is somewhat of a sheltered beach not far from the city. It hosts a colony of African Penguins which attracts a lot of visitors. Even though set near human habitations the defenseless birds can be observed at close range, moving freely in a protected natural environment.