Cape Bojador

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Lighthouse at Cape Bojador

The Cape Bojador ( Arabic رأس بوجادور, DMG Raʾs Būjādūr , French spelling Cape Boujdour ) is a promontory on the northwest coast of Africa , south of the Canary Islands and belongs to today's Western Sahara . Cape Bojador forms the western foothills of the Jebel el Aswad mountain range in the Sahara and was considered the western end of the world in the Middle Ages . Here you will find the highest known dunes ( erg ) with up to 130 meters on the flat coastal plain, which otherwise consists of Hammada .

history

Especially the Portuguese under Heinrich the Navigator had set themselves the goal of overcoming the Cape on their journeys along the African coast towards the south. The circumnavigation of the cape by other sailors such as those of the Genoese Ugolino and Vadino (Guido) Vivaldi in 1291 or that of the Catalan Jayme Ferrer (1346) had either been kept top secret and / or had been forgotten. In addition, many expeditions, such as that of the Vivaldi brothers, never returned.

In 1422, Heinrich the Navigator commissioned a fleet for the first time to sail around Cape Bojador, but the captains turned back out of fear. Every year thereafter this experiment was repeated at least once a year.

When the Portuguese Gil Eanes circumnavigated Cape Bojador, also known as Cape of Terror , Cape of Fear or Cape of No Return, in 1434 , the Portuguese had tried 15 times since 1422. Eanes is therefore not without good reason as the sailor who opened the door to the Europeans on the way to India around Africa. Legend has it that he brought Heinrich the first "Roses of St. Mary" to prove his discovery. This is probably the " Rose of Jericho " found in desert areas .

After disputes between the Portuguese and the Spaniards over the property rights on the Atlantic coast, the Pope in 1456 allocated the land to the Portuguese traders to the south and the Spaniards to the north of Cape Bojador. In the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494, both countries divided the then known world into a Portuguese and a Spanish half. For the recognition of the Portuguese hegemony over all waters and lands south of Cape Bojador - to secure the sea route around Africa to India - Portugal finally left the Canary Islands to Spain .

The first trading post south of the cape was established around this time in Arguin . In 1884 the Spaniards declared the area between Cape Bojador and La Gouira a Protectorate of the Spanish Sahara .

Because of the shallow depth of the sea, the numerous cliffs and sandbanks , the violent currents and the frequent cloudiness of the atmosphere , the coast from the cape to the south is dangerous to navigate.

alternative

Cabo Bojador.jpg

After studying contemporary maps, however, some historians assume that the “Cape Boujdour”, which was considered the “end of the world” ( finis terrae ) in the late Middle Ages , could have been today's Cape Juby near Tarfaya in the Canary Islands.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. John Mercer: Spanish Sahara. George Allen & Unwin, London 1976, ISBN 0-04-966013-6 , pp. 82, 106

Coordinates: 26 ° 7 ′ 37 "  N , 14 ° 29 ′ 57"  W.