Cape Agulhas

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Cape Agulhas

Cape Agulhas (Portuguese

Portuguese language

Portuguese is a Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia and Portugal. It is derived from the Latin language spoken by the Romanization Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula around 2000 years ago....
: Cabo das Agulhas, "Cape of Needles") is the geographic southern tip of the Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km? including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area....
n continent

Continent

A continent is one of several large landmasses on Earth. They are generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, with seven regions commonly regarded as continents ? they are : Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia ....
, commonly thought to be the Cape of Good Hope
Cape of Good Hope

The Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headlands and bays on the Atlantic Ocean coast of South Africa. There is a very common misconception that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa and the dividing point between the Atlantic Ocean and Indian Oceans, but in fact the southernmost point is Cape Agulhas, about 150 kilometres t...
, and according to popular mythology is the dividing point between the Atlantic

Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions; with a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres . It covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface....
and Indian

Indian Ocean

The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering about 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by Asia ; on the west by Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and Australia; and on the south by the Southern Ocean ....
oceans. Historically, the cape has been known to sailors as a major hazard on the traditional clipper route

Clipper route

In sailing, the clipper route was the traditional route sailed by clipper between Europe and the Far East, Australia and New Zealand. The route ran from west to east through the Southern Ocean, in order to make use of the strong westerly winds of the Roaring Forties....
and is sometimes regarded as one of the great capes

Great capes

In sailing, the great capes are the three major headlands and bayss of the Southern Ocean ? the Cape of Good Hope , Cape Leeuwin, and Cape Horn....
.

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Encyclopedia

Cape Agulhas (Portuguese

Portuguese language

Africa

Continent

Atlantic Ocean

Indian Ocean

Clipper route

Great capes

In sailing, the great capes are the three major headlands and bayss of the Southern Ocean ? the Cape of Good Hope , Cape Leeuwin, and Cape Horn....
. It was most commonly known in English as Cape L'Agullas until the 20th century.

Agulhas
Agulhas

Agulhas is a coastal village in the Western Cape province of South Africa, and the southernmost settlement on the mainland of Africa. It is situated at Cape Agulhas, the southernmost tip of Africa....
is a coastal village in the Western Cape

Western Cape

The Western Cape is a Provinces of South Africa in the south west of South Africa. The capital is Cape Town. Prior to 1994, the region that now forms the Western Cape was part of the huge Cape Province....
province of South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa, also known by Official names of South Africa, is a country located at the southern tip of the continent of Africa....
, and the southernmost settlement on the mainland of Africa. It is situated at Cape Agulhas

Cape Agulhas

Cape Agulhas is the geographic extreme points of Africa of the African continent, commonly thought to be the Cape of Good Hope, and according to popular mythology is the dividing point between the Atlantic Ocean and Indian Ocean oceans....
, the southernmost tip of Africa

Africa

Geography

Cape Agulhas is the southernmost point in the continent of Africa

Africa

Overberg

The Overberg is a region in South Africa to the east of Cape Town beyond the Hottentots-Holland mountains. It lies along the Cape Province's south coast between the Cape Peninsula and the region known as the Garden Route in the east....
region, 170 kilometres (105 mi) southeast of Cape Town

Cape Town

Cape Town is the second most populous city in South Africa, forming part of the metropolitan municipality of the City of Cape Town. It is the provincial Capital of the Western Cape, as well as the legislature capital of South Africa, where the Parliament of South Africa and many government offices are located....
. The cape was named by Portuguese

Portuguese people

The Portuguese people are the ethnic group or nation native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of Southern Europe-Western Europe Europe....
navigators, who called it Cabo das Agulhas — Portuguese

Portuguese language

Portuguese is a Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia and Portugal. It is derived from the Latin language spoken by the Romanization Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula around 2000 years ago....
for "Cape of Needles" — after noticing that in the year 1500 the direction of magnetic north coincided with true north

True north

True north is the direction along the earth's surface towards the geographic North Pole.True north usually differs from magnetic north pole and grid north ....
in the region. The cape is within the Cape Agulhas Municipality of the Western Cape

Western Cape

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa, also known by Official names of South Africa, is a country located at the southern tip of the continent of Africa....
.

The cape is defined by the International Hydrographic Organization

International Hydrographic Organization

The International Hydrographic Organization was originally established in 1921 as the International Hydrographic Bureau . The present name was adopted in 1970 as a result of a revised international agreement among member nations....
to be the dividing point between the Indian

Indian Ocean

Atlantic Ocean

Ocean

An ocean is a major body of Seawater, and a principal component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface is covered by ocean, a World Ocean that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas....
s. South of Cape Agulhas the warm Agulhas Current

Agulhas Current

The Agulhas Current is the Western Boundary Current of the South-West Indian Ocean and is part of the westward flowing South Equatorial Current....
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 neighboring ocean. This mechanism constitutes one of the key elements in the global conveyor belt

Thermohaline circulation

The term thermohaline circulation refers to the part of the large-scale ocean circulation that is driven by global Density gradient created by surface heat and freshwater Flux....
circulation of heat and salt.

Unlike its better-known relative, the Cape of Good Hope

Cape of Good Hope

The Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headlands and bays on the Atlantic Ocean coast of South Africa. There is a very common misconception that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa and the dividing point between the Atlantic Ocean and Indian Oceans, but in fact the southernmost point is Cape Agulhas, about 150 kilometres t...
, Cape Agulhas is relatively unspectacular, consisting of a gradually curving coastline with a rocky beach. A survey marker indicates the location of the cape, which would otherwise be difficult to identify. The waters near the coast are quite shallow and are renowned as one of the best fishing grounds in South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa, also known by Official names of South Africa, is a country located at the southern tip of the continent of Africa....
.

The rocks that form Cape Agulhas belong to the Table Mountain 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

Table Mountain

Table Mountain is a flat-topped mountain forming a prominent landmark overlooking the city of Cape Town in South Africa, and is featured in the flag of Cape Town and other local government insignia....
, Cape Point

Cape Point

Cape Point is a promontory at the south-east corner of the Cape Peninsula, which is a mountainous and very scenic landform that runs north-south for about thirty kilometres at the extreme southwestern tip of the African continent in the Republic of South Africa....
, and the Cape of Good Hope.

The climate is extremely mild, with no temperature or rainfall extremes. The average rainfall is 500mm per annum, mostly received in winter (unverified, as closest data is from Bredasdorp

Bredasdorp

Bredasdorp is a small Overberg town located in the Western Cape Province in South Africa....
). Temperature climate data is available for Cape Agulhas, averages are:

Jan max: 23,8°C (min: 17,7°C); Jul max: 16,5°C (min: 10,8°C)

Shipping hazards

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

Freak wave

Rogue waves are relatively large and spontaneous ocean surface waves that are a threat even to large ships and ocean liners. In oceanography, they are more precisely defined as waves whose wave height is more than twice the significant wave height , which is itself defined as the mean of the largest third of waves in a wave record....
s, which can range up to 30 metres (100 ft

Foot

The foot is an anatomical structure found in many animals. It is the terminal portion of a limb which bears weight and allows locomotion. In many animals with feet, the foot is a separate organ at the terminal part of the leg made up of one or more segments or bones, generally including claws or nails....
) high and can sink even large ships. These conditions are caused by a number of factors. The naturally strong winds of the roaring forties

Roaring Forties

The Roaring Forties is a name given, especially by sailors, to the latitudes between 40?S and 50?S, so called because of the boisterous and prevailing westerly winds....
, which blow from west to east, and the cold Antarctic Circumpolar Current

Antarctic Circumpolar Current

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current is an ocean current that flows from west to east around Antarctica. An alternate name for the ACC is the West Wind Drift....
flowing in the same direction, come up against the warmer Agulhas Current

Agulhas Current

The Agulhas Current is the Western Boundary Current of the South-West Indian Ocean and is part of the westward flowing South Equatorial Current....
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 Agulhas Bank

Agulhas Bank

The Agulhas Bank is a broad, shallow part of the continental shelf which extends south of Cape Agulhas before falling away steeply away to the abyssal plain....
, a broad, shallow part of the continental shelf

Continental shelf

The continental shelf is the extended perimeter of each continent and associated coastal plain, and was part of the continent during the glacial periods, but is undersea during Ice age such as the current epoch by relatively shallow seas and Bay....
which juts 250 kilometres (155 mi) south from the cape, after which it falls steeply away to the abyssal plain

Abyssal plain

Abyssal plains are flat or very gently sloping areas of the deep ocean basin floor. They are among the Earth's flattest and smoothest regions and the least explored....
.

These hazards have combined to make the cape notorious among sailors. The coast here is littered with wrecks: Arniston
Arniston (ship)

The Arniston was an East Indiaman ship that was wrecked on 30 May 1815 during a storm at Waenhuiskrans, near Cape Agulhas, South Africa with the loss of 372 lives and only 6 survivors....
(1815), Cooranga (1964), Elise (1879), European (1877), Federal Lakes (1975), Geortyrder (1849), Gouritz (1981), and Gwendola (1968) are just a few of the vessels lost in the proximity of the "Cape of Needles." Owing to the hazards and following the loss of several vessels, notably the Arniston

Arniston (ship)

The Arniston was an East Indiaman ship that was wrecked on 30 May 1815 during a storm at Waenhuiskrans, near Cape Agulhas, South Africa with the loss of 372 lives and only 6 survivors....
, a lighthouse was built in 1848, this being only the second one to be built in the country. The lighthouse now holds a museum and a small rustic restaurant.

Although many believe that Cape Point

Cape Point

Cape Point is a promontory at the south-east corner of the Cape Peninsula, which is a mountainous and very scenic landform that runs north-south for about thirty kilometres at the extreme southwestern tip of the African continent in the Republic of South Africa....
, which is further north, is where the two oceans meet, they actually meet at Cape Agulhas. The Agulhas Current is a strong ocean current

Ocean current

An ocean current is continuous, directed movement of ocean water. The currents are generated from the forces acting upon the water like the Earth's rotation, the wind, the temperature, salinity differences and the tide....
known for its rogue waves.

The lighthouse at Cape Agulhas was built in homage to the Pharos of Alexandria – one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World.

External links

, from South Africa Online Travel Guide
, with tip cut off bottom of diagram

Cape Agulhas

Geography

Shipping hazards

See also

External links