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Lion's Head (Cape Town)
Lion's Head is a mountain in Cape Town, South Africa, between Table Mountain and Signal Hill. Lion's Head peaks at above sea level. The peak forms part of a dramatic backdrop to the city of Cape Town and is part of the Table Mountain National Park. Surrounding The suburbs of the city surround the peak and Signal Hill on almost all sides, but strict management by city authorities has kept development of housing off the higher ground. The area is significant to the Cape Malay community, who historically lived in the Bo-Kaap quarter close to Lion's Head. There are a number of historic graves and shrines (''kramat''s) of Malay leaders on the lower slopes and on Signal Hill. History In the 17th century the peak was known as ''Leeuwen Kop'' (Lion's Head) by the Dutch, and Signal Hill was known as ''Leeuwen Staart'' (Lion's Tail), as the shape resembles a crouching lion or a sphinx. The English in the 17th Century called the peak Sugar Loaf. In 1897 gold was discovered on Lion' ...
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Western Cape
The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020. About two-thirds of these inhabitants live in the metropolitan area of Cape Town, which is also the provincial capital. The Western Cape was created in 1994 from part of the former Cape Province. The two largest cities are Cape Town and George. Geography The Western Cape Province is roughly L-shaped, extending north and east from the Cape of Good Hope, in the southwestern corner of South Africa. It stretches about northwards along the Atlantic coast and about eastwards along the South African south coast (Southern Indian Ocean). It is bordered on the north by the Northern Cape and on the east by the Eastern Cape. The total land area of the province is , about 10.6% of the country's total. It is roughly the size of England or the S ...
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Mazar (mausoleum)
A ''mazār'' ( ar, مزار), or ''darīh'' () in the Maghreb, is a mausoleum or shrine in some places of the world, typically that of a saint or notable religious leader. Medieval Arabic texts may also use the words ''mašhad'' or ''maqām'' to denote the same concept. Etymology *''Mazār'', plural ''mazārāt'' (), is related to the word '' ziyāra'' (, meaning "visitation"). It refers to a place and time of visiting. Arabic in origin, the word has been borrowed by Persian and Urdu. *''Darīh'', plural ''adriha'' () or ''dara'ih'' (), is related to the verb ''daraha'' ( meaning "to inter"). It is commonly used in the Maghreb. Specific types of shrines *''Mashhad'' (), plural ''mashāhid'', usually refers to a structure holding the tomb of a holy figure, or a place where a religious visitation occurred. Related words are ''shāhid'' (‘witness’) and ''shahīd'' (‘martyr’). A mashhad often had a dome over the place of the burial within the building. Some had a minaret. ...
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Peninsula Sandstone Fynbos
Peninsula Sandstone Fynbos is a unique and endangered vegetation type that is endemic to the Cape Peninsula in Cape Town. This type of Mountain Fynbos occurs on very poor, acidic soils but is incredibly rich in biodiversity with an enormous number of plant species – many of which occur nowhere else. Due to its poor soils and steep, inaccessible location, it has not been developed for farming or houses, and consequently it is relatively well conserved. Description The plant life is a special kind of Fynbos, containing a vast mix of species from all of the principal components of Fynbos vegetation. A great many of these species are endemic and can be found nowhere else in the world, including around 33 endemic Ericas. (There is even a unique species of aloe, the Table Mountain Aloe, which is also endemic to Table Mountain's Peninsula Sandstone Fynbos.) The variety of tall Protea species are particularly striking and noticeable and are especially common growing in the rough sand ...
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Peninsula Shale Renosterveld
Peninsula Shale Renosterveld (PSR) is a unique vegetation type that is found only on the slopes of Signal Hill and Devil's Peak in Cape Town, South Africa. It is critically endangered and exists nowhere else. Habitat This unique type of Renosterveld is indigenous and endemic to the Cape Town City Bowl but, due to the growth of this city, it now survives only on the slopes of Signal Hill and Devil's Peak. It is subject to very frequent fires, and is therefore dominated by a wide variety of grass and bulb species. There are a large variety of tall shrubs such as the Wax Karee, but the Renosterbos bush (the signature plant of Renosterveld) is relatively less common. At its southern boundary, this vegetation type gradually merges into Fynbos. The critically endangered blue-eyed uintjie (''Moraea aristata'') flower is totally endemic to this vegetation type and occurs nowhere else. Soils and climate The soils in this area are composed predominantly of hard, fertile clay that ...
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Peninsula Granite Fynbos
Peninsula Granite Fynbos is an endangered Fynbos vegetation type which is endemic to the city of Cape Town and occurs nowhere else. It is a unique type of tall, dense and diverse scrubland, scattered with trees. It can be found all along the belt of granite that encircles Table Mountain. Natural Distribution This unique vegetation type occurs only within the city of Cape Town, particularly in a band that encircles the Table Mountain range – following the stratum of the Cape Granite Suite. It occurs from Lion's Head in the north, to Hout Bay and Muizenberg in the south. There is also an isolated patch near Simonstown, further to the south. It grows on the gentler, lower slopes of Table Mountain, over rolling hills and valleys - in rich, deep soils formed from eroded granite. Because of the rich soils and gentle terrain, most of this ecosystem has been destroyed to make way for vineyards, wealthy suburbs and commercial pine plantations. In fact, the largest patches of exposed ...
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Biodiversity
Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic (''genetic variability''), species (''species diversity''), and ecosystem (''ecosystem diversity'') level. Biodiversity is not distributed evenly on Earth; it is usually greater in the tropics as a result of the warm climate and high primary productivity in the region near the equator. Tropical forest ecosystems cover less than 10% of earth's surface and contain about 90% of the world's species. Marine biodiversity is usually higher along coasts in the Western Pacific, where sea surface temperature is highest, and in the mid-latitudinal band in all oceans. There are latitudinal gradients in species diversity. Biodiversity generally tends to cluster in hotspots, and has been increasing through time, but will be likely to slow in the future as a primary result of deforestation. It encompasses the evolutionary, ecological, and cultural ...
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Fynbos
Fynbos (; meaning fine plants) is a small belt of natural shrubland or heathland vegetation located in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa. This area is predominantly coastal and mountainous, with a Mediterranean climate and rainy winters. The fynbos ecoregion is within the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub biome. In fields related to biogeography, fynbos is known for its exceptional degree of biodiversity and endemism, consisting of about 80% (8,500 fynbos) species of the Cape floral kingdom, where nearly 6,000 of them are endemic. This land continues to face severe human-caused threats, but due to the many economic uses of the fynbos, conservation efforts are being made to help restore it. Overview and history The word fynbos is often confusingly said to mean "fine bush" in Afrikaans, as "bos" means "bush". Typical fynbos foliage is ericoid rather than fine. The term, in its pre-Afrikaans, Dutch form, ''fynbosch'', was recorded by Nob ...
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P1000268a The Summit Of Lion's Head
P1, P01, P-1 or P.1 may refer to: Computing, robotics, and, telecommunications * DSC-P1, a 2000 Sony Cyber-shot P series camera model * Sony Ericsson P1, a UIQ 3 smartphone * Packet One, the first company to launch WiMAX service in Southeast Asia * Peer 1, an Internet hosting provider * Honda P1, a 1993 Honda P series of robots, an ASIMO predecessor Media * DR P1, a Danish radio network operated by Danmarks Radio * NRK P1, a Norwegian radio network operated by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation * SR P1, a Swedish radio network operated by Sveriges Radio * Polonia 1, a Polish TV channel of the Polcast Television Military * P-1 Hawk, a 1923 biplane fighter of the U.S. Army Air Corps * Kawasaki P-1, a Japanese maritime patrol aircraft (previously P-X) * P-1 (missile), a Soviet anti-ship cruise missile Science Biology * P1 antigen, identifies P antigen system * P1 laboratory, biosafety -level-1 laboratory * P1 phage, a bacterial virus * SARS-CoV-2 Gamma variant, a strai ...
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Cape Town Under The Clouds
A cape is a clothing accessory or a sleeveless outer garment which drapes the wearer's back, arms, and chest, and connects at the neck. History Capes were common in medieval Europe, especially when combined with a hood in the chaperon. They have had periodic returns to fashion - for example, in nineteenth-century Europe. Roman Catholic clergy wear a type of cape known as a ferraiolo, which is worn for formal events outside a ritualistic context. The cope is a liturgical vestment in the form of a cape. Capes are often highly decorated with elaborate embroidery. Capes remain in regular use as rainwear in various military units and police forces, in France for example. A gas cape was a voluminous military garment designed to give rain protection to someone wearing the bulky gas masks used in twentieth-century wars. Rich noblemen and elite warriors of the Aztec Empire would wear a tilmàtli; a Mesoamerican cloak/cape used as a symbol of their upper status. Cloth and clothing w ...
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Paragliding
Paragliding is the recreational and competitive adventure sport of flying paragliders: lightweight, free-flying, foot-launched glider aircraft with no rigid primary structure. The pilot sits in a harness or lies supine in a cocoon-like 'pod' suspended below a fabric wing. Wing shape is maintained by the suspension lines, the pressure of air entering vents in the front of the wing, and the aerodynamic forces of the air flowing over the outside. Despite not using an engine, paraglider flights can last many hours and cover many hundreds of kilometres, though flights of one to two hours and covering some tens of kilometres are more the norm. By skillful exploitation of sources of lift, the pilot may gain height, often climbing to altitudes of a few thousand metres. History In 1966, Canadian Domina Jalbert was granted a patent for a ''multi-cell wing type aerial device—''"a wing having a flexible canopy constituting an upper skin and with a plurality of longitudinally extend ...
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Full Moon
The full moon is the lunar phase when the Moon appears fully illuminated from Earth's perspective. This occurs when Earth is located between the Sun and the Moon (when the ecliptic coordinate system, ecliptic longitudes of the Sun and Moon opposition (astronomy), differ by 180°). This means that the lunar hemisphere facing Earth—the near side of the Moon, near side—is completely sunlit and appears as an approximately circular disk. The full moon occurs roughly once a month. The time interval between a full moon and the next repetition of the same phase, a Lunar month#Synodic month, synodic month, averages about 29.53 days. Therefore, in those lunar calendars in which each month begins on the day of the new moon, the full moon falls on either the 14th or 15th day of the lunar month. Because a calendar month consists of a Natural number, whole number of days, a month in a lunar calendar may be either 29 or 30 days long. Characteristics A full moon is often thought of as an ...
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