Cape Agulhas (; pt, Cabo das Agulhas , "Cape of the Needles") is a rocky

headland A headland, also known as a head, is a coastal landform, a point of land usually high and often with a sheer drop, that extends into a body of water. It is a type of promontory. A headland of considerable size often is called a cape.Whittow, John ...

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 ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. It is the geographic southern tip of the

African continent Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

and the beginning of the dividing line between the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

and

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

Oceans according to the

International Hydrographic Organization The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) is an intergovernmental organisation representing hydrography. , the IHO comprised 98 Member States. A principal aim of the IHO is to ensure that the world's seas, oceans and navigable waters a ...

. Historically, the cape has been known to sailors as a major hazard on the traditional

clipper route The clipper route was the traditional route derived from the Brouwer Route and sailed by clipper ships between Europe and the Far East, Australia and New Zealand. The route ran from west to east through the Southern Ocean, to make use of the st ...

. It is sometimes regarded as one of the

great capes In sailing, the great capes are three major capes of the continents in the Southern Ocean—Africa's Cape of Good Hope, Australia's Cape Leeuwin, and South America's Cape Horn. Sailing The traditional clipper route followed the winds of the ...

. It was most commonly known in English as Cape L'Agulhas until the 20th century. The town of

L'Agulhas L'Agulhas is the most southern coastal village and holiday resort in South Africa, located within the Cape Agulhas Local Municipality at the southernmost tip of the African mainland. It is situated next to the town of Struisbaai and about south ...

is located near to the cape.

Geography

Cape Agulhas is located in the

Overberg __NOTOC__ Overberg is a region in South Africa to the east of Cape Town beyond the Hottentots-Holland mountains. It lies along the Western Cape Province's south coast between the Cape Peninsula and the region known as the Garden Route in the ...

region, 170 kilometres (105 mi) southeast of

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

. The cape was named by

Portuguese navigators Portuguese maritime exploration resulted in the numerous territories and maritime routes recorded by the Portuguese as a result of their intensive maritime journeys during the 15th and 16th centuries. Portuguese sailors were at the vanguard of Eu ...

, who called it ''Cabo das Agulhas''—

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

for "Cape of Needles"—after noticing that around the year 1500 the direction of

magnetic north The north magnetic pole, also known as the magnetic north pole, is a point on the surface of Earth's Northern Hemisphere at which the planet's magnetic field points vertically downward (in other words, if a magnetic compass needle is allowed t ...

(and therefore the compass needle) coincided with

true north True north (also called geodetic north or geographic north) is the direction along Earth's surface towards the geographic North Pole or True North Pole. Geodetic north differs from ''magnetic'' north (the direction a compass points toward the ...

in the region. The cape is within the

Cape Agulhas Local Municipality Cape Agulhas Municipality ( af, Kaap Agulhas Plaaslike Munisipaliteit) is a municipality located in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. it had a population of 33,038. Its municipality code is WC033. It is named after Cape Agulhas, the sout ...

in the Overberg District of the

province of South Africa.''Cape Agulhas Municipality''
official home page Agulhas is serviced by the nearby small airport of Andrew's Field. South of Cape Agulhas the warm

Agulhas Current The Agulhas Current () is the western boundary current of the southwest Indian Ocean. It flows south along the east coast of Africa from 27°S to 40°S. It is narrow, swift and strong. It is suggested that it is the largest western boundary curren ...

that flows south along the east coast of Africa retroflects back into the Indian Ocean. While retroflecting, it pinches off large ocean eddies (Agulhas rings) that drift into the South Atlantic Ocean and take enormous amounts of heat and salt into the neighbouring ocean. This mechanism constitutes one of the key elements in the global

conveyor belt A conveyor belt is the carrying medium of a belt conveyor system (often shortened to belt conveyor). A belt conveyor system is one of many types of conveyor systems. A belt conveyor system consists of two or more pulleys (sometimes referred to ...

circulation of heat and salt. Cape Agulhas has a gradually curving coastline with rocky and sand beaches. A survey marker and a new marker depicting the African continent are located at the most Southern tip of Africa. The waters of the

Agulhas Bank The Agulhas Bank (, from Portuguese for Cape Agulhas, ''Cabo das Agulhas'', "Cape of Needles") is a broad, shallow part of the southern African continental shelf which extends up to south of Cape Agulhas before falling steeply to the abyssal pl ...

off the coast are quite shallow and are renowned as one of the best fishing grounds in South Africa. The rocks that form Cape Agulhas belong to the

Table Mountain Table Mountain ( naq, Huriǂoaxa, lit= sea-emerging; af, Tafelberg) is a flat-topped mountain forming a prominent landmark overlooking the city of Cape Town in South Africa. It is a significant tourist attraction, with many visitors using the ...

Group, often loosely termed the Table Mountain sandstone. They are closely linked to the geological formations that are exposed in the spectacular cliffs of Table Mountain,

Cape Point Cape Point ( af, Kaappunt) is a promontory at the southeast corner of the Cape Peninsula, a mountainous and scenic landform that runs north-south for about thirty kilometres at the extreme southwestern tip of the African continent in South Af ...

and the

Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope ( af, Kaap die Goeie Hoop ) ;''Kaap'' in isolation: pt, Cabo da Boa Esperança is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is t ...

Climate

Cape Agulhas has a warm

Mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate (also called a dry summer temperate climate ''Cs'') is a temperate climate sub-type, generally characterized by warm, dry summers and mild, fairly wet winters; these weather conditions are typically experienced in the ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

:''Csb''). The climate is consistently mild, with no temperature or rainfall extremes. According to South African National Parks, who administer the nature reserve, the average rainfall is 400–600 mm per annum, mostly received in winter. Temperature climate data is available for Cape Agulhas, averages are:

Shipping hazards

The sea off Cape Agulhas is notorious for winter storms and mammoth

rogue wave Rogue waves (also known as freak waves, monster waves, episodic waves, killer waves, extreme waves, and abnormal waves) are unusually large, unpredictable, and suddenly appearing surface waves that can be extremely dangerous to ships, even to lar ...

s, which can range up to 30 metres (100 ft) high and can sink even large ships. Over the past few hundred years it has been believed that around 150 ships have sunk around Agulhas. These conditions are caused by a number of factors. The naturally strong winds of the

Roaring Forties The Roaring Forties are strong westerly winds found in the Southern Hemisphere, generally between the latitudes of 40°S and 50°S. The strong west-to-east air currents are caused by the combination of air being displaced from the Equator ...

, which blow from west to east, and the cold

Antarctic Circumpolar Current The Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) is an ocean current that flows clockwise (as seen from the South Pole) from west to east around Antarctica. An alternative name for the ACC is the West Wind Drift. The ACC is the dominant circulation feat ...

flowing in the same direction, come up against the warmer

in the region of the cape. These conflicting currents of water of different densities, and the west winds blowing against the Agulhas Current, can create extremely hazardous wave conditions; these are further exacerbated by the shallow waters of the

, a broad, shallow part of the

continental shelf A continental shelf is a portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water, known as a shelf sea. Much of these shelves were exposed by drops in sea level during glacial periods. The shelf surrounding an island ...

which juts 250 kilometres (155 mi) south from the cape, after which it falls steeply away to the

abyssal plain An abyssal plain is an underwater plain on the deep ocean floor, usually found at depths between and . Lying generally between the foot of a continental rise and a mid-ocean ridge, abyssal plains cover more than 50% of the Earth's surface. T ...

. These hazards have combined to make the cape notorious among sailors. The coast here is littered with wrecks: '' Arniston'' (1815), ''Geortyrder'' (1849), ''Elise'' (1879), ''Cooranga'' (1964), ''Gwendola'' (1968), ''Federal Lakes'' (1975), and ''Gouritz'' (1981), but these are just a few of the vessels lost in the proximity of the "Cape of Needles".''Marine Casualty Database Southern African Coast''
(copy at the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

), from NCS Cape Town Owing to the hazards and following the loss of several vessels, notably the ''Arniston'', a lighthouse was built in 1848. The lighthouse now plays host to a museum and a small rustic restaurant.

References

External links

Agulhas National Park
{{authority control

Agulhas Agulhas (''needles'' in the Portuguese language — or ) may refer to: * Cape Agulhas, the southernmost point of Africa * L'Agulhas, a town near the Cape * Cape Agulhas Lighthouse, located at the Cape * Cape Agulhas Local Municipality, the municip ...

Maritime history of South Africa Cape Agulhas Local Municipality

Geography

Climate

Shipping hazards

See also

References

External links