Cape of Good Hope

Credit: Jeff Schmaltz; MODIS team; NASA, Posted on: Saturday, 29 April 2006, 10:04 CDT Download full size image

This MODIS image shows the country of South Africa. One of the most prominent features is the Cape of Good Hope, which is the little hook of land jutting out from the southern edge of South Africa, right in the center of the image.

The Cape was first rounded by Portuguese navigator Bartolomeu Dias in 1488, who called it the Cape of Storms. It was later named the Cape of Good Hope by John II of Portugal; the first rounding of the Cape was a major step for Europeans looking for a trade route to the Far East.

The city of Cape Town, the current parliamentary capital of South Africa, is located on the north part of the Cape. Johannesburg and Pretoria (the commercial and legislative capitals, respectively) are much further north and not shown on this image.

A mountainous ridge called the Great Escarpment forms a boundary between the interior plateaus and the coastal regions of South Africa.

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