Hopetown

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Hopetown
Hopetown (South Africa)
Hopetown
Hopetown
Coordinates 29 ° 37 '33 "  S , 24 ° 5' 8"  E Coordinates: 29 ° 37 '33 "  S , 24 ° 5' 8"  O
Basic data
Country South Africa

province

North Cape
District Pixley Ka Seme
ISO 3166-2 ZA-NC
local community Thembelihle
height 1102 m
surface 73.9 km²
Residents 10,259 (2011)
density 138.9  Ew. / km²
founding 1850

Hope Town is a city in the South African province of North Cape (Northern Cape). It is the administrative seat of the municipality of Thembelihle in the Pixley Ka Seme district .

geography

Hopetown is located in the sparsely populated inland, on the edge of the Great Karoo , on a slope south of the Orange River .

88% of the residents have Afrikaans as their first language, 7% isiXhosa .

history

The place was founded in 1850 at a ford of the Orange River after Sir Harry Smith had moved the northern border of the Cape Colony to the Orange River. The place was named after William Hope, a Cape Colony administrator at the time. 1867 and 1869 have been here with the 23.25 carat heavy Eureka Diamond and the 83.5 carat Star of Africa , the first significant diamond found in South Africa. To connect the northern city of Kimberley , a railway line was built in 1884, which has since crossed the Orange River a few kilometers east of Hopetown.

Economy and Transport

Around Hopetown, fruit, wheat and potatoes are grown - some of which are artificially irrigated - and cattle are also farmed.

The national road N12 runs northeast to Kimberley and southwest to Victoria West . The R369 crosses Hopetown in a west-east direction and connects Prieska and Vanderkloof Dam . The R358 leads north to Douglas , the R388 south to De Aar . Hopetown Airfield, used by private planes, is east of the city.

Personalities

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 2011 census , accessed April 6, 2016
  2. ↑ a b Description at sa-venues.com (English), accessed on April 6, 2016