Mossel Bay

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Mossel Bay
Mossel Bay (South Africa)
Mossel Bay
Mossel Bay
Coordinates 34 ° 10 '55 "  S , 22 ° 8' 2"  O Coordinates: 34 ° 10 '55 "  S , 22 ° 8' 2"  O
Basic data
Country South Africa

province

Western cape
District Garden Route
ISO 3166-2 ZA toilet
local community Mossel Bay
height 110 m
surface 42.2 km²
Residents 59,031 (2011)
density 1,398.8  Ew. / km²

Mossel Bay (English) or Mosselbaai ( Afrikaans ; German: "Muschelbucht") is a city on the coast of South Africa with 59,031 inhabitants (as of 2011). It is located in the Western Cape Province , east of the Cape of Good Hope and west of Knysna . It belongs to the Garden Route district and is the seat of the local community of Mossel Bay . Mossel Bay also refers to the bay on which the city is located.

history

The Portuguese navigator Bartolomeu Diaz discovered Mossel Bay on February 3, 1488 during his experience of Africa. This makes it the site of the first landing by Europeans on the east coast of South Africa. Diaz named the bay Aguada de Sao Bras , the Dutchman Paulus van Caerden renamed it Mosselbaai because of the many mussels in the bay . The city was renamed Aliwal South on January 28, 1846 by the former governor of the Cape Colony, Sir Harry Smith . Due to frequent confusion with the town of Aliwal North , this name was not widely accepted, and the name Mossel Bay was reverted to.

economy

In the 19th century the city was the location of a whaling station , today tourism as well as gas and oil production are of economic importance. The natural gas fields discovered in 1984 are around 50 kilometers off the coast and in 2019 still had a volume of 600 billion cubic feet .

There is a city partnership with the Indonesian city ​​of Denpasar in Bali .

The drinking water supply has been partly guaranteed since 2011 by the local seawater desalination plant Mossel Bay . It is the largest system for drinking water supply based on this technology in South Africa.

photos

  • Mossel Bay town center

  • At Santos Beach

  • Bartolomeu Dias Maritime Museum

  • Lighthouse at Cape St. Blaize

Web links

Commons : Mossel Bay  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kwa-Nonqaba , Mossel Bay , Isinyoka , Asazani 2011 Census (added), accessed November 23, 2013
  2. ^ Verdict Media Limited: Mossel Bay, Mossgas Gas Field Project . at www.offshore-technology.com , accessed on September 27, 2019.
  3. ^ Mossel Bay Tourism: Official Twin Cities (note on website below) . on www.visitmosselbay.co.za (English)
  4. ^ Western Cape Government: Mossel Bay's desalination plant gets top award . News from August 24, 2011 on www.mosselbay.gov.za (English)