Cape of Good Hope

Cape of Good Hope, headland in southwestern South Africa, in the province of Western Cape, near Cape Town. Rising 256 m (840 ft) above sea level, the headland marks the turning point for vessels traveling between the South Atlantic and Indian oceans. It is erroneously regarded as the extremity of the continent; Cape Agulhas, to the southeast, is the southernmost point of Africa. The Cape of Good Hope was rounded by the Portuguese navigator Bartolomeu Dias in 1488 and named by him Cabo Tormentoso (Portuguese, “Cape of Storms”). It was renamed Cabo da Bõa Esperança (Portuguese, “Cape of Good Hope”) by John II of Portugal, because of the commercial importance of the new route to the east. The cape was not rounded again by a European until 1497, when the Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama made the first voyage from Europe to India.