Cape of Good Hope

a promontory near the southern extremity of Africa. Cape Agulhas, 100 miles to the southeast, is the extremity of the continent. Cape of Good Hope is situated in latitude 34 degree 21' S.; longitude 18 degree 30' E. It was discovered in 1487 by the Portuguese navigator, Bartholomew Diaz, and doubled again by Vasco da Gama in 1497. These navigators were exploring the coast in search of a sea route from western Europe to India. Diaz named it "Cape of Storms," but King John of Portugal, who had high hopes of commercial advantage from the new route, insisted on the present name. The promontory follows a curve perhaps thirty miles in length. The very tip is known as Vasco da Gama Hill. Table Mountain, a flat-topped elevation, 3,585 feet high, is about thirty miles from the tip. The name is taken from the flat table-like top, but it is rendered still more appropriate by the mists and clouds which not infrequently spread over the surface and hang over the sides like a table cloth. A British naval station is maintained within the eastern shelter of the Cape. Cape Town nestles at the foot of Table Mountain, fronting a bay that opens to the west. See Vasco Da Gama