Archived from the original on 19 October 2007. ^ 'History: Proposals for a Lighthouse at L'Agulhas'.^ Marine Casualty Database Southern African Coast (copy at the Internet Archive), from NCS Cape Town.Archived from the original on 9 March 2016. ^ 'Visiting the southernmost point in Africa'.

^ 'Rogue Waves – Monsters of the deep: Huge, freak waves may not be as rare as once thought'.^ 'Climate Statistics for Cape Agulhas, South Africa'.Archived from the original on 23 June 2019. Centro de Investigaciones Fitosociológicas. Archived from the original on 30 March 2014. ^ Cape Agulhas Municipality official home page.^ Patricia Seed: Discovery of the Coincidence of Magnetic and True North.International Hydrographic Organization Special Publication No. ^ Limits of Oceans and Seas Archived 6 June 2015 at the Wayback Machine.The lighthouse now plays host to a museum and a small rustic restaurant. Owing to the hazards and following the loss of several vessels, notably the Arniston, a lighthouse was built in 1848. The coast here is littered with wrecks: Arniston (1815), Geortyrder (1849), Elise (1879), Cooranga (1964), Gwendola (1968), Federal Lakes (1975), and Gouritz (1981), but these are just a few of the vessels lost in the proximity of the 'Cape of Needles'. These hazards have combined to make the cape notorious among sailors. These conflicting currents of water of different densities, and the west winds blowing against the Agulhas Current, can create extremely hazardous wave conditions these are further exacerbated by the shallow waters of the Agulhas Bank, a broad, shallow part of the continental shelf which juts 250 kilometres (155 mi) south from the cape, after which it falls steeply away to the abyssal plain. The naturally strong winds of the Roaring Forties, which blow from west to east, and the cold Antarctic Circumpolar Current flowing in the same direction, come up against the warmer Agulhas Current in the region of the cape. These conditions are caused by a number of factors. Over the past few hundred years it has been believed that around 150 ships have sunk around Agulhas. The sea off Cape Agulhas is notorious for winter storms and mammoth rogue waves, which can range up to 30 metres (100 ft) high and can sink even large ships. The lighthouse at Cape Agulhas has guided many ships around the cape over the years. Source 1: Sistema de Clasificación Bioclimática Mundial They are closely linked to the geological formations that are exposed in the spectacular cliffs of Table Mountain, Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. The rocks that form Cape Agulhas belong to the Table Mountain Group, often loosely termed the Table Mountain sandstone. The waters of the Agulhas Bank off the coast are quite shallow and are renowned as one of the best fishing grounds in South Africa. A survey marker and a new marker depicting the African continent are located at the most Southern tip of Africa. This mechanism constitutes one of the key elements in the global conveyor belt circulation of heat and salt.Ĭape Agulhas has a gradually curving coastline with rocky and sand beaches. While retroflecting, it pinches off large ocean eddies (Agulhas rings) that drift into the South Atlantic Ocean and take enormous amounts of heat and salt into the neighbouring ocean. South of Cape Agulhas the warm Agulhas Current that flows south along the east coast of Africa retroflects back into the Indian Ocean. Agulhas is serviced by the nearby small airport of Andrew's Field. The cape is within the Cape Agulhas Local Municipality in the Overberg District of the Western Cape province of South Africa. The cape was named by Portuguese navigators, who called it Cabo das Agulhas- Portuguese for 'Cape of Needles'-after noticing that around the year 1500 the direction of magnetic north (and therefore the compass needle) coincided with true north in the region. Cape Agulhas is located in the Overberg region, 170 kilometres (105 mi) southeast of Cape Town.

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