The Cape of Good Hope, at the southern tip of the Cape Peninsula, is located in:

The Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headland at the southern end of the Cape Peninsula, about 50 km south of Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa.

A common misconception:

• The Cape of Good Hope is often thought to be the southernmost point of Africa, but it is not.
• The southernmost point of Africa is Cape Agulhas, about 150 km to the south-east.
• Cape Agulhas is also the official dividing point between the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean.

History:

The Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias was the first European to sail around the cape, in 1488. He named it the "Cape of Storms" (Cabo das Tormentas) because of the rough seas.

King John II of Portugal renamed it the "Cape of Good Hope" (Cabo da Boa Esperanca), because rounding it opened the hope of a sea route to India and the East.

In 1497-98, Vasco da Gama sailed around the Cape of Good Hope and reached Calicut (Kozhikode) on the Malabar coast of India on 20 May 1498, opening the direct sea route from Europe to India.

Importance:

• The route around the Cape was the main sea route between Europe and Asia until the Suez Canal opened in 1869.
• Even today, large ships that cannot use the Suez Canal, or that avoid it because of conflicts in the Red Sea region, sail around the Cape.

Natural features:

• The cape is part of Table Mountain National Park.
• The area has unique vegetation called fynbos, part of the Cape Floral Region, one of the richest plant regions in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
• The cold Benguela Current flows along the west coast, while the warm Agulhas Current flows along the east coast.
• South Africa has three capitals: Pretoria (executive), Cape Town (legislative) and Bloemfontein (judicial).

Why not the other options?

• ✗Namibia, Mozambique and Madagascar do not contain the Cape of Good Hope.