Mossel Bay

Province

Mossel Bay ( English) or Mossel Bay ( Afrikaans ) is a city on the coast of South Africa with 59,031 inhabitants ( 2011). It is located in the Western Cape Province, east of the Cape of Good Hope and west of Knysna. It belongs to the district of Eden and is the seat of the municipality of Mossel Bay. Mossel Bay also referred to the bay on which the city is located.

The Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias discovered the Bay Mossel Bay on February 3, 1488 during his Africa -pass. This makes it the site of the first landing of Europeans on the east coast of South Africa. Diaz named the bay Aguada de Sao Bras, the Dutchman Paul van Caerden named it because of the many shells in the bay in Mossel Bay ( German: "Shell Bay " ) around. From the former governor of the Cape Colony, Sir Harry Smith, the city on 28 January 1846, renamed Aliwal South. Due to frequent confusion with the town of Aliwal North was this name not long acceptance, and they returned to the name Mossel Bay.

In the 19th century the city was the site of a whaling station, today, tourism, gas and oil production of economic importance.

Pictures

At Santos Beach

Bartolomeu Dias Maritime Museum