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Table Bay (Afrikaans
Afrikaans

Afrikaans is an Indo-European language, derived from Dutch language and thus classified as Low Franconian languages West Germanic languages. It is mainly spoken in South Africa and Namibia, with smaller numbers of speakers living in Botswana, Angola, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Zambia, Australia, New Zealand, United States of America, Taiwa...
 Tafelbaai) is a natural inlet overlooked by 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....
 (founded 1652) and is at the northern end of the Cape Peninsula, which stretches south to 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...
. It was so named because it is dominated by the flat-topped Table Mountain.

Bartolomeu Dias
Bartolomeu Dias

Bartolomeu Dias , a Nobleman of the Royal Household, was a Portugal List of explorers who sailed around the southernmost tip of Africa in 1488, the first European known to have done so....
 was the first European to explore this region in 1486. The bay, although famous for centuries as a haven for ships, is actually a rather poor natural harbour and is badly exposed to gales from both the SE and NW.






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Table Bay (Afrikaans
Afrikaans

Afrikaans is an Indo-European language, derived from Dutch language and thus classified as Low Franconian languages West Germanic languages. It is mainly spoken in South Africa and Namibia, with smaller numbers of speakers living in Botswana, Angola, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Zambia, Australia, New Zealand, United States of America, Taiwa...
 Tafelbaai) is a natural inlet overlooked by 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....
 (founded 1652) and is at the northern end of the Cape Peninsula, which stretches south to 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...
. It was so named because it is dominated by the flat-topped Table Mountain.

Bartolomeu Dias
Bartolomeu Dias

Bartolomeu Dias , a Nobleman of the Royal Household, was a Portugal List of explorers who sailed around the southernmost tip of Africa in 1488, the first European known to have done so....
 was the first European to explore this region in 1486. The bay, although famous for centuries as a haven for ships, is actually a rather poor natural harbour and is badly exposed to gales from both the SE and NW. Many sailing ships seeking refuge in the bay during the 17th and 18th centuries were driven ashore by storms. (See article about Wolraad Woltemade
Wolraad Woltemade

Wolraad Woltemade was a South African dairy farmer, who died while rescuing sailors from the wreck of the ship De Jonge Thomas in Table Bay on 1 June 1773....
).

The Dutch colonists nevertheless persisted with their colony on the shores of Table Bay because natural harbours along this coastline are scarce and the only realistic alternatives- Simon's Bay and Saldanha Bay
Saldanha Bay

Saldanha Bay is a natural harbour on the south-western coast of South Africa, north west of Cape Town. The town that developed around the bay, also called Saldanha, was was incorporated with five other towns into the Saldanha Bay Local Municipality in 2000....
 - had almost no fresh water. Eventually a harbour was built in Table Bay by a process of land reclamation
Land reclamation

Land reclamation is either of two distinct practices. One involves creating new land from sea- or riverbeds, the other refers to restoring an area to a more natural state ....
 and defended by breakwaters
Breakwater (structure)

Breakwaters are structures constructed on coasts as part of coastal management or to protect an anchorage from the effects of weather and longshore drift....
 to protect shipping. The older part of this structure is called the Victoria Dock
Victoria Dock

There are several places called Victoria Dock.* Royal Victoria Dock, London* Victoria Dock, Liverpool, Liverpool* Victoria Dock * Victoria Dock - previously part of the Port of Melbourne, now part of the Melbourne Docklands redevelopment and called Victoria Harbour...
. The newer part is called the Duncan Dock. The blue indentation that is the harbour and the white line of the breakwater are just visible in the satellite image. Robben Island
Robben Island

Robben Island or Penguin Island is an island in Table Bay, some seven kilometres off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa. The name is Dutch language for "seal island"....
, where Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was the first President of South Africa of South Africa to be elected in a universal suffrage democratic election, serving in the office from 1994?99....
 was imprisoned for decades, is in this bay.

Gallery


See also

  • False Bay
    False Bay

    False Bay is a body of water defined by Cape Hangklip and the Cape Peninsula in the extreme South-West of South Africa....
  • Eduard Bohlen
    Eduard Bohlen

    The Eduard Bohlen was a ship that ran aground off the coast of Namibia Skeleton Coast on September 5, 1909, in a thick fog. Currently the wreck lies in the sand a distance from the shoreline....