page_title: Cape Peninsula
hierarchical_section_title: Cape Peninsula
caption_attribution_description: Afrikaans: Uitsig oor Kaapstad, die Kaapse Skiereiland en Kaapse Vlakte vanuit die Internasionale Ruimtestasie. Ruimtevaarderfoto ISS059-E-78303 is op 28 Mei 2019 verkry deur middel van 'n Nikon D5 digitale kamera met 340 millimeter lens, en is voorsien deur die IRS-bemanning se Aardwaarnemingsgerief en die Aardwetenskap-en-Afstandwaarnemingseenheid van die Johnson-ruimtesentrum. Die foto is geneem deur 'n lid van die Ekspedisie 59-span. Die beeld is geknip, die kontras is verbeter en lens-artefakte is verwyder. English: View of City of Cape Town showing the Cape Peninsula and Cape Flats from the International Space Station. Astronaut photograph ISS059-E-78303 was acquired on May 28, 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 340 millimeter lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 59 crew. The image has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast, and lens artifacts have been removed.
context_page_description: The Cape Peninsula is a generally rocky peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic Ocean at the south-western extremity of the African continent. At the southern end of the peninsula are Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. On the northern end is Table Mountain, overlooking Cape Town, South Africa. The peninsula is 52 km long from Mouille point in the north to Cape Point in the south.
  The Peninsula has been an island on and off for the past 5 million years, as sea levels fell and rose with the ice age and interglacial global warming cycles of, particularly, the Pleistocene. The last time that the Peninsula was an island was about 1.5 million years ago. Soon afterwards it was joined to the mainland by the emergence from the sea of the sandy area now known as the Cape Flats. The towns and villages of the Cape Peninsula and Cape Flats now form part of the City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality.
  The Cape of Good Hope is sometimes erroneously identified as the meeting point of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.
context_section_description: The Cape Peninsula (Afrikaans: Kaapse Skiereiland) is a generally rocky peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic Ocean at the south-western extremity of the African continent. At the southern end of the peninsula are Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. On the northern end is Table Mountain, overlooking Cape Town, South Africa. The peninsula is 52 km long from Mouille point in the north to Cape Point in the south.
  The Peninsula has been an island on and off for the past 5 million years, as sea levels fell and rose with the ice age and interglacial global warming cycles of, particularly, the Pleistocene. The last time that the Peninsula was an island was about 1.5 million years ago. Soon afterwards it was joined to the mainland by the emergence from the sea of the sandy area now known as the Cape Flats. The towns and villages of the Cape Peninsula and Cape Flats now form part of the City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality.
  The Cape of Good Hope is sometimes erroneously identified as the meeting point of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. However, according to the International Hydrographic Organization agreement that defines the ocean boundaries, the meeting point is at Cape Agulhas, about 200 km (120 mi) to the southeast. The west coast of the Peninsula is referred to as the "Atlantic Coast", "Atlantic Seaboard" or west coast, but the eastern side is generally known as the "False Bay Coast".
  Similarly, Cape Point is not the fixed "meeting point" of the cold Benguela Current, running northwards along the west coast of Africa, and the warm Agulhas Current, running south from the equator along the east coast of Africa. In fact the south flowing Agulhas Current swings away from the African coastline between about East London and Port Elizabeth, from where it follows the edge of the Continental shelf roughly as far as the southern tip of the Agulhas Bank, 250 km (155 miles) south of Cape Agulhas. From there it is retroflexed (turned sharply round) in an easterly direction by the South Atlantic, South Indian and Southern Ocean currents, known as the "West Wind Drift", which flow eastwards round Antarctica. The Benguela Current, on the other hand, is an upwelling current which brings cold, mineral-rich water from the depths of the Atlantic Ocean to the surface along the west coast of Southern Africa. Having reached the surface it flows northwards as a result of the prevailing wind and Coriolis forces. The Benguela Current, therefore, effectively starts at Cape Point, and flows northwards from there,  although further out to sea it is joined by surface water that has crossed the South Atlantic from South America as part of the South Atlantic Gyre.  Thus the Benguela and Agulhas currents do not strictly "meet" anywhere, although eddies from the Agulhas current do from time to time round the Cape to join the Benguela Current.
caption: View of the Cape Peninsula showing the City of Cape Town and False Bay in the background from the International Space Station, May 2019
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