Cape of Good Hope

The famous English explorer and buccaneer F. Drake (1545 -1595) as - that said: "The most amazing and most beautiful promontory in the land." This statement, as some believe, is not likely directly to the Cape of Good Hope, and the entire Cape Peninsula, in addition, in the XVI century were known not all capes. And yet, the Cape of Good Hope, along with its neighboring Cape Cape in landscape terms, of course, represent something quite exceptional. In addition, there is hardly another such friendly and promising geographic name-it alone would be enough to inadvertently put the Cape of Good Hope at the heart of all the "corners" of our continents. Today, hardly anyone - ever remembers that his discoverer of Bartolomeu Dias (1488) is not without reason, christened him otherwise-Cabo Tormentoso («Cape of Storms") and that the current name, reminiscent of the former king of Portugal, due to the very prosaic reason - hope for the riches of India. Cape of Good Hope, located at 34 ° S. sh.ne extreme point of Africa. Southern tip of the continent is Cabo Agulhas, Cape Agulhas, which lies at 0,5 ° south. As soon as you get to Cape Town, a trip to the Cape is not difficult, although the distance to it more than 60 km on both sides of the narrow peninsula of Cape him are good roads. They are, however, to put it mildly, not too wide and full of sharp turns, but the inconveniences are compensated lovely views over the open ocean and ornate forms of naked rocks. Picturesque landscape catches sight at the very giant Cape Town, which stretches like an amphitheater at the foot cool surging Mesa (1028 m), there are few big cities on earth, that the beauty of its position on the slopes of the mountains to the sea could compete with the Cape Town ... Flashed quickly buried in the leafy suburb of the capital, and the further move to the south, the rarer of the settlement; yes on the rocky coast and steep ground - for them a little. At the southern tip of the peninsula of Cape towns in general loop with 1939 reserve has been established. Government purchased the land belonging to farmers, and the area kept in its original condition. Managed to restore the livestock of various wild animals in the wild you will see various antelope, zebras, baboons and ostriches. Nowhere else in South Africa's landscape is not so reminiscent of the Mediterranean coast with their poppies, with thickets of evergreen shrubs. True, they are mostly quite different family of plants on the general impression is the same: evergreen shrubs often with small, stiff leaves, often so densely lined with thorns, it is difficult or even impossible to break off a twig. Vegetation has adapted to the big dry, and, as in Italy, hot summer rains are almost never happens. Precipitation in winter. The average annual temperature in Cape Town is 16 °, and the amount of rainfall less than 650 mm (in Palermo on 17 ° and 750 mm). At the Cape of Good Hope, on Table Mountain and elsewhere often appearing in the south - east wind clouds and fog ("veil" on Table Mountain) seems to produce slightly more pleasant weather than on the Mediterranean coast, and the course of the climatic elements here is flatter, no wonder they say that the climate at the Cape of Good Hope, one of the best in the world. Maybe that's climate-related extraordinary diversity of vegetation: Some flowering plants here, there are 2,600 species. Even on a small walk every step you meet more and more new species. Especially distinguished family heath and proteus, only one genus Erica represented 102 species, which means that the true birthplace of heather, the Cape of Good Hope. Beautifully blooming Proteaceae and especially the genus Protea, which gave the name of the family, became something of a symbol not only of the Cape, but the whole of South Africa, although they are widespread in Australia (Figure 20.3). In the flower shops (especially at the airport of Johannesburg) are particularly willing to buy Protea with large buds, but there are also pharmacies Protea, butchers Protea, Protea insurance companies, etc. And no one thinks about the origin of the name: Proteus, the Greek mythology of the sea god capable of receiving different images. One of the most remarkable and beautiful trees of the Cape of Good Hope belongs to the family proteus-Leucadendron argenteum (silver tree) with leaves, cast in silver. Here you can meet and plant, widespread in Sredizemnomore.polzuchee, with thick leaves, Mesembryanthemum; but his real home here on the Cape. Many among the wild and our favorite indoor and garden plants, amaryllis, freeziya, gemantus, stocks, strelntsiya. Perina knifofiya. Of course, there's on the cape and the plant aliens from other countries. Acacia with yellow flowers growing so that suppresses local flora, even in a national park. In the beautiful Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens at Cape Town you will be acquainted with all the variety of flora of the peninsula. No less instructive than the flora, geological structure of the Cape, where it is so simple and intuitive, which accounts for only regret that it is impossible to demonstrate it is not local students. First of all, perhaps, it is striking that the mountains around folded completely flat-lying, properly layered sedimentary rocks. This is very clearly seen in the huge cliff of Table Mountain and Cape of Good Hope 11.1. Mostly it's bright quartz sandstones, which in places are interbedded with reddish - brown layers of shale. In the sandstone can often be seen cross-bedding, obychpo naklopeppuyu to the south. This indicates the existence of flows in a southerly direction, or at the delta of the river, which flowed from the north. Fossils are extremely rare, judging from the little discoveries, we are talking about the rocks early - Paleozoic age, at the same Cape Peninsula distributed mainly Ordovician sediments. Sea or lake basin, which deposited these amazingly monotonous sand and clay sediments, extends far to the north. Therefore, the pattern of denuded mountains north of the PA is often very similar to the landscape in the Cape Peninsula. Siresa near or east Yulanvilyama, 100 or more kilometers north of the peninsula can be seen the same steep-slope, clearly layered mountain ranges as the Cape of Good Hope. Only the layers are deposited here, as a rule, not horizontally, but obliquely. indicating that they belong folded mountains. Certainly a different origin than the sandstone, a layer of tillita, stripping, for example, at the top of Table Mountain in the thickness of sandstone. In this layer, visible well polished, with distinct scratches pebbles, indicating processing of the glacier; tillite considered so as moraine formation. Talk about glaciation Mesa (or, more correctly, on the glaciation period of the formation layers of Table Mountain, as most of Mesa did not yet exist). Age glaciation about 400 million years, it is therefore considerably older than Late glaciation Dvayka, which we learned in Noytgedahte. Ordovician and Silurian "series of Table Mountain" is the name the entire sedimentary sequence and outside the Cape Peninsula near Cape of Good Hope lies on the edge. This contact is also excellent outcrops in many areas of the road leading to the Cape. Granite is usually highly weathered and consists of gravel, as it were, so he is more like a loose sandstone than na hard igneous rocks, which should be granite. He differs, moreover, the inclusions of numerous large crystals of white feldspar, which sometimes reach the size of a fist. The surface of the granite foundation was uneven, when the deposition on it of Paleozoic sandstones, some - where clearly visible small ridges and Dolinky. In addition, the general surface of the granite cap tilted to the south: in Cape Town, it stands a few hundred meters above sea level, and at Cape Point is gradually sinking into the ocean. Now known (thanks to potassium - argopovomu method) and the absolute age of granite: 500 million years. Like all of the underlying rock, he stood under a thick layer of other entities, much of which was certainly demolished before deposited sandstones, except the last could not lie directly on the granite. Thickness of rocks, which once penetrated granitic melt in some places still exist. On the rocky coast of Seapoint, Cape Town, a suburb west, outcrops of these rocks are so interesting that a number of them placed a large copper shield, pointing to the truly amazing nature sanctuary. The bright cores are black granite permeate 'burnt on contact with the granite melt to hornfels shales, often in granite' float 'pieces of dark hornfels. Folded Precambrian schists belong to the series (Malmesbury). Thus, the rocks forming the Cape Peninsula, can be learned from the geological record the following information about the change of geological processes (from younger to older). Only once in recent geological time, all these rocks have been raised by more than 1000 m, ongoing processes of weathering, dripping with water and formed a huge surf, steep banks of Cape Peninsula and cause them to gradually recede into the land. Other traces of recent geological processes remained small. Since the last glaciation, the wind had deflated the white sand beach far into the internal parts of the peninsula. Sand dunes rise along the slopes na few hundred meters away and fill the lowland between the harbor and the city of Chapman Fishuk. which separates the peninsula of Cape two mountain islands. Dunes in some places covered with a solid bright lime rind. During the last ice age sea level (or rather, the ocean), sometimes rising above modern sea water and flooded vast lowlands of the peninsula, the entire plain sandy areas north and east of Cape Town (now there is a large airport), then the peninsula in its present form, ceased to exist over expanse of water rose only one or two rocky islands. Cape of Good Hope, which was then raised above the mirror of the ocean at 20 meters lower than now, is not a tip of Africa and small island.