The Hole-in-the-Wall is an extraordinary

natural arch A natural arch, natural bridge, or (less commonly) rock arch is a natural landform where an arch has formed with an opening underneath. Natural arches commonly form where inland cliffs, coastal cliffs, fins or stacks are subject to erosion f ...

. The formation consists of a

tidal island A tidal island is a piece of land that is connected to the mainland by a natural or man-made causeway that is exposed at low tide and submerged at high tide. Because of the mystique surrounding tidal islands, many of them have been sites of ...

containing a natural arch that takes the form of a hole pierced through a wall of sandstone and shale by the waves of the sea located at the mouth of the Mpako River, about 8 km due south of

Coffee Bay Coffee Bay ( af, Koffiebaai) is a town on the Wild Coast Region, Eastern Cape, Wild Coast of the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is located about 250 kilometres south of the city of Durban and has a population of 258 people. The town is ...

on the

Wild Coast Region, Eastern Cape The Wild Coast is a section of the coast of the Eastern Cape, a province of South Africa. The region stretches from East London in the south to the border of KwaZulu-Natal in the north. It is the traditional home of the Mpondo people, and the bi ...

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 ...

. The natural arch is large enough for a sailboat to cross underneath it with ease. It is reachable by foot just off the beach joining the rock formation to the land at low tide. Visitors and tourists to the formation may find accommodation in the nearby village of the same name. The local

Xhosa Xhosa may refer to: * Xhosa people, a nation, and ethnic group, who live in south-central and southeasterly region of South Africa * Xhosa language, one of the 11 official languages of South Africa, principally spoken by the Xhosa people See als ...

inhabitants call it ''esiKhaleni'' or 'Place of Noise'. According to a Xhosa legend a beautiful maiden who lived in a village on the shores of a coastal lagoon separated from the sea by a sheer cliff, fell in love with a man of the legendary sea-people. On hearing of the unnatural liaison, her angry father forbade her to see her lover or leave the village. One night her lover came to the cliff with his people and rammed a gaping hole through the cliff using the head of an enormous fish. Through this breach they streamed to the village singing and shouting; all the villagers hid, except the maiden, who rushed into the arms of her lover. She was never heard of again. Under certain conditions the waves slap the rocks with a resounding ''crack'', and the hole roars during storms. Tribesmen believe that these are the sounds of the sea-people singing and shouting, hence the name of the place, ''esiKhalweni.'' The ship ''Santo Alberto'' ran aground in 1593 near Hole-in-the-Wall. On 4/5 August 1991 the luxury liner ''

Oceanos MTS ''Oceanos'' was a French-built and Greek-owned cruise ship that sank in 1991 when she suffered uncontrolled flooding. Her captain, Yiannis Avranas, and some of the crew were convicted of negligence for fleeing the ship without helping the ...

'' sank 5 km off shore near Hole-in-the-Wall.The Oceanos Sinking, an account by Moss Hills
All 571 passengers and crew were rescued, mostly by helicopter.

References

* Miller, Penny ''Myths and Legends of Southern Africa'' p. 117, illus. * ''Op Pad in Suid-Afrika''. BPJ Erasmus 1995. {{coord, -32.0411, 29.1093, type:landmark_region:ZA, display=title, format=dms Landforms of the Eastern Cape Tourist attractions in the Eastern Cape