Cape of Good Hope

Due to the recent blockage of the Suez Canal, the option of re-routing ships via the Cape of Good Hope was explored.
The Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa.
A headland is a narrow piece of land which sticks out from the coast into the sea.
The Cape of Good Hope route joins Eastern Asia and Europe to southern parts of Africa.
The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 provided a much shorter route from the Mediterranean Sea to the Indian Ocean, making the long trip around Africa inefficient.
The Cape of Good Hope route is 8900 km longer than the Suez canal route and can take additional two weeks.
A common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa.
Contemporary geographic knowledge instead states the southernmost point of Africa is Cape Agulhas about 150 km to the east-southeast.
The warm-water Agulhas current (Indian Ocean) meets the cold-water Benguela current (Atlantic ocean) between Cape Agulhas and Cape Point (about 1.2 km east of the Cape of Good Hope).

History:

The Cape was originally named the Cape of Storms in 1488 by the Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias.
It was later renamed to Cape Good Hope to attract more people to the Cape Sea Route that passed the southern coast of Africa.
The Cape eventually became a significant port and waypoint for sailors traveling from Europe to Asia.

SOURCE: THE HINDU,THE ECONOMIC TIMES,MINT

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