Cape Agulhas (; , "Cape of 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, Jo ...

Western Cape The Western Cape ( ; , ) is a provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the List of South African provinces by area, fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , an ...

, South Africa. It is the geographic southern tip of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

and the beginning of the traditional dividing line between the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...

and Indian oceans according to the

International Hydrographic Organization The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) (French: ''Organisation Hydrographique Internationale'') is an intergovernmental organization representing hydrography. the IHO comprised 102 member states. A principal aim of the IHO is to ...

. It is approximately half a degree of

latitude In geography, latitude is a geographic coordinate system, geographic coordinate that specifies the north-south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from −90° at t ...

, or , farther south than the

Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope ( ) is a rocky headland on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A List of common misconceptions#Geography, common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Afri ...

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

clipper route The clipper route was derived from the Brouwer Route and was sailed by clipper, clipper ships between Europe and the Far East, Australia and New Zealand. The route, devised by the Dutch navigator Hendrik Brouwer in 1611, reduced the time of a ...

. It is sometimes regarded as one of the great capes. It was most commonly known in English as Cape L'Agulhas until the 20th century. The town of

L'Agulhas L'Agulhas is the southernmost seaside resort, 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 ...

is near 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 e ...

region, 170 kilometres (105 mi) southeast of

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

. The cape was named by Portuguese navigators, who called it ''Cabo das Agulhas''— Portuguese 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 is the direction along Earth's surface towards the place where the imaginary rotational axis of the Earth intersects the surface of the Earth on its Northern Hemisphere, northern half, the True North Pole. True south is the direction ...

in the region. The cape is within the

Cape Agulhas Local Municipality Cape Agulhas Municipality () 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 southernmost point of Africa. The largest tow ...

in the Overberg District of the

province of South Africa.''Cape Agulhas Municipality''
official home page South of Cape Agulhas the warm Agulhas 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 neighbouring ocean. This mechanism constitutes one of the key elements in the global conveyor belt 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 pla ...

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 (; ) 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 Table Mountain Aerial Cableway, cableway or hik ...

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 and the

Climate

Cape Agulhas has a warm

Mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate ( ), also called a dry summer climate, described by Köppen and Trewartha as ''Cs'', is a temperate climate type that occurs in the lower mid-latitudes (normally 30 to 44 north and south latitude). Such climates typic ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

: ''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 A rogue wave is an abnormally large ocean wave. Rogue wave may also refer to: * Optical rogue waves, are rare pulses of light analogous to rogue or freak ocean waves. * Rogue Wave Software, a software company * Rogue Wave (band), an American in ...

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 westerlies, westerly winds that occur in the Southern Hemisphere, generally between the latitudes of 40th parallel south, 40° and 50th parallel south, 50° south. The strong eastward air currents are caused by ...

, which blow from west to east, and the cold Antarctic Circumpolar Current flowing in the same direction, come up against the warmer Agulhas 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

, 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 islan ...

which extends up to 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 . 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. They ...

. 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 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

), 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 Maritime history of South Africa Cape Agulhas Local Municipality

Geography

Climate

Shipping hazards

See also

References

External links