Saldanha, Western Cape

Province

Saldanha is a town in the municipality of Saldanha Bay, West Coast District, Western Cape Province in South Africa. It is located 140 km north of Cape Town. Large regional importance Saldanha has acquired through its ore port and naval base. Today, the city has also become a popular destination for tourists. 2011, the city had 28,142 inhabitants.

History

The city and the bay of the same have been named after the Portuguese Admiral António de Saldanha. He reached Table Bay in May 1503. Actually he planned circumnavigation of the Cape of Good Hope, but ended due to a navigational error in Table Bay. As a Dutch cartographer in 1601 drove down the west coast of present-day South Africa, he confused the two bays and named the 140 km northerly Bay Saldanha Bay.

First commercial interests in the bay showed the mid-17th century, the Free Burghers ( free citizens) of the Dutch East India Company, because the fish stocks very productive appeared in the bay. 1658 was a group of Burghern, known as the Saldanha seafarers, fishing rights in the bay and send the proceeds to Table Bay to Cape Town. One fifth of the income had to be delivered in salted or dried form. These rights they retained until 1711th

In 1976, the 861 km long railway line Sishen - Saldanha was completed, carry on up to four kilometer long trains of iron ore from the interior to the port Saldanha. The harbor is approximately 74 km ², the largest area port in Africa. Ships up to 250,000 tons can create one here.

In Saldanha is the only training center for the South African Navy.

Tourism

The Saldanha Bay is known for its beaches and as a water sports area, such as drive for kayaking, water skiing and windsurfing.

Hominin fossils

Saldanha was eponymous for a beginning of the 1950s, around 15 kilometers east of Saldanha Bay discovered, relatively well-preserved cranium of Homo erectus ( " Saldanha Skull ").

1997 also the discovery of fossil hominin footprints of two individuals of the species Homo sapiens, it was announced that had been discovered on the outskirts of the located southeast of the Saldanha Bay Langebaan Lagoon and subsequent dated to an age of 117,000 years.