Bojador

Bojador lies on the Saharan Atlantic coast near the cape of the same name. Sandy beaches and rocky shallows fringe a shore backed by the dry plains of the western Sahara. In 1434 the Portuguese navigator Gil Eanes sailed far enough offshore to pass the dangerous cape, allowing later expeditions to continue south along the African coast. To seafarers the headland became a landmark at the edge of a long and exposed desert shoreline.