Cape Agulhas Light House, South Africa
The Cape Agulhas Lighthouse has stood for over 150 years as a maritime chaperone over the notorious 'Cape of Storms', at the most southern tip of Africa. This official meeting point of the Indian Ocean and Atlantic Ocean is also the point of convergence of the Mozambique and Benguela currents. The Agulhas bank is a unique geographical formation which bears the title 'Graveyard of Ships' due to this challenging crossing resulting in numerous shipwrecks. The ocean depth in this area is only 60 fathoms deep for 250 kilometres out to sea and then drops sharply to 180 000 fathoms reaching as far as Antarctica. When seafaring Portuguese vessels rounded this Cape tip in the 15th century their compass needles would swing unable to determine True North from Magnetic North. As a result, in 1488 the Portuguese navigator, Bartholomew Dias, named this ocean site 'Capo das Agulhas' translating to 'Cape of Needles'.
