Just before the Union of South Africa was formed, the term referred to the entire region that in 1910 was to become the Cape of Good Hope Province (usually shortened to the Cape Province).Įudoxus of Cyzicus ( / ˈ juː d ə k s ə s/ Greek: Εὔδοξος, Eúdoxos fl.It was the name of the early Cape Colony established by the Dutch East Indies Company in 1652, on the Cape Peninsula.Prior to its incorporation into the national park, this section constituted the Cape Point Nature Reserve. It is a section of the Table Mountain National Park, within which the cape of the same name, as well as Cape Point, falls.The term Cape of Good Hope is also used in three other ways: It is a waypoint on the Cape Route and the clipper route followed by clipper ships to the Far East and Australia, and still followed by several offshore yacht races. Īs one of the great capes of the South Atlantic Ocean, it has long been of special significance to sailors, many of whom refer to it simply as ' the Cape'. Dias called the cape Cabo das Tormentas ('Cape of Storms' Dutch: Stormkaap), which was the original name of the cape. Thus, the first modern rounding of the cape in 1487 by Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias was a milestone in the attempts by the Portuguese to establish direct trade relations with the Far East (although Herodotus mentioned a claim that the Phoenicians had done so far earlier). When following the western side of the African coastline from the equator, however, the Cape of Good Hope marks the point where a ship begins to travel more eastward than southward. Cape Agulhas is the southernmost part of South Africa. The Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of the Cape Peninsula, approximately 50 km (31 mi) south of Cape Town, South Africa.

What land did Vasco da Gama