Qualla: Cape Point

Cape Point: Introduction

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. The old lighthouse at the top of Cape Point stood 262 meters above the sea, and that was the problem. On 18 April 1911, the Portuguese liner Lusitania ran onto Bellows Rock just south of the point, her crew having spotted the light too early and steered too close. The lighthouse was so high that fog and cloud regularly swallowed it, leaving ships blind precisely when they needed guidance most. The disaster prompted what might seem like an illogical response: they built a second lighthouse, lower down, at just 87 meters. It worked. The new light, with a range of 63 kilometers and an intensity of 10 megacandelas per flash, is now the most powerful on the South African coast.

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Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Cape Point: The Corner of the Peninsula

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Maskaravivek, CC BY-SA 3.0. Cape Point is a promontory at the southeastern corner of the Cape Peninsula, a mountainous landform that runs roughly 30 kilometers north-south at the extreme southwestern tip of the African continent. Table Mountain and Cape Town anchor the northern end; Cape Point and its neigh...

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Image: Maskaravivek | CC BY-SA 3.0

Cape Point: Where Currents Collide

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Oggmus, CC BY-SA 4.0. Cape Point is often claimed to be the meeting place of the Atlantic and Indian oceans, the spot where you can see the cold Benguela current and the warm Agulhas current crash together in a visible line across the water. It is a captivating image, but it is not true. There is no l...

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Image: Oggmus | CC BY-SA 4.0

Cape Point: Two Lights on One Mountain

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Habib M'henni, CC BY 4.0. The rugged sandstone ridge above Cape Point develops into two peaks, the higher one crowned by the original lighthouse that operated from 1860 to 1919. The Flying Dutchman Funicular now carries tourists from a parking area to a viewing platform near the old light, offering panora...

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Image: Habib M'henni | CC BY 4.0

Cape Point: Wild Ground Within the Park

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Stannya, CC BY-SA 4.0. Cape Point lies within the Table Mountain National Park, in a section that covers the entire southern tip of the peninsula -- roughly 20 percent of the park's total area. This section is largely wild, unspoiled, and undeveloped, a refuge for seabirds and the distinctive vegetatio...

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Image: Stannya | CC BY-SA 4.0

Cape Point: Watching the Atmosphere Change

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Oggmus, CC BY-SA 3.0. Cape Point hosts one of the Global Atmosphere Watch's atmospheric research stations, taking advantage of its position at the edge of a continent and the meeting zone of two ocean systems. In the early twentieth century, icebergs from Antarctica were occasionally sighted from Cape...

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Image: Oggmus | CC BY-SA 3.0