Agulhas

Cape Agulhas is the southernmost tip of Africa, where a low, rocky shore faces the wide Agulhas Bank. Portuguese navigators knew it as the Cape of Needles, or Cabo das Agulhas, by the early sixteenth century. Ships bound between Europe and Asia passed this coast, but its exposed reefs and seas made the voyage dangerous. Among the vessels lost here were the Dutch East India Company's Zoetendal in 1673 and the British transport Arniston in 1815.