Saldanha (South Africa)

Saldanha
Saldanha
Coordinates	33 ° 1 ′  S , 17 ° 57 ′  E Coordinates: 33 ° 1 ′  S , 17 ° 57 ′  E
Basic data
Country	South Africa
province	Western cape
District	West coast
local community	Saldanha Bay
Residents	28,142 (2011)
The Saldanha Bay at night

Iron ore port (2016)

Saldanha is a town in the Saldanha Bay municipality , West Coast District , Western Cape Province in South Africa . It is located 140 kilometers north of Cape Town . Saldanha has achieved great regional importance through its ore port and the military port . Today the city has also become a popular destination for tourists. In 2011 the city had 28,142 inhabitants.

history

The city and the bay of the same name were named after the Portuguese admiral António de Saldanha . He reached Table Bay in May 1503. He was actually planning to circumnavigate the Cape of Good Hope , but ended up in Table Bay due to a navigation error. When a Dutch cartographer was driving along the west coast of what is now South Africa in 1601, he confused the two bays and named the bay, 140 kilometers further north, Saldanha Bay.

The Free Burghers of the Dutch East India Company showed their first commercial interests in the bay in the middle of the 17th century , because the fish stocks in the bay seemed very profitable. In 1658 a group of Burghern known as the Saldanha seafarers got the rights to fish in the bay and send the proceeds to Table Bay in Cape Town. A fifth of the yield had to be delivered in cured or dried form. They retained these rights until 1711.

In 1976 the 861 kilometer long Sishen – Saldanha railway was completed, on which trains up to four kilometers long transport iron ore from the interior to the port of Saldanha . With around 74 km², the port is the largest port in Africa. Ships with up to 250,000 tons can dock here.

The only training center of the South African Navy is located in Saldanha .

economy

In Saldanha is a direct reduction steel plant of ArcelorMittal with a capacity of 1.2 million tonnes per year.

tourism

The bay of Saldanha is known for its beaches and as a water sports area, for example for kayaking, water skiing and windsurfing.

Hominin fossils

Saldanha gave its name to the relatively well-preserved skull roof Saldanha 1 of the late African Homo erectus or Homo heidelbergensis , which was discovered in 1953 at the Elandsfontein site, around 15 kilometers east of Saldanha Bay .

In 1997, the discovery of fossil hominine footprints of two individuals of the archaic Homo sapiens was announced, which had been discovered on the edge of the Langebaan Lagoon , which adjoins Saldanha Bay to the southeast , and had been dated to an age of 117,000 years.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 2011 census , accessed November 23, 2013
2. ↑ ^{a b} History of Saldanhas (English, PDF file; 62 kB), accessed on January 22, 2012
3. ↑ Information on Saldanha , accessed on January 22, 2012
4. ↑ Saldanha Works Overview
5. ^ Ronald Singer : The Saldanha Skull from Hopefield, South Africa. In: American Journal of Physical Anthropology , Volume 12, No. 3, 1954, pp. 345-362, DOI: 10.1002 / ajpa.1330120309
6. ↑ nationalgeographic.com of August 14, 1997: Footprints Found in South Africa Come From Dawn of Modern Humans.
   Rick Gore: Tracking the First of Our Kind. In: National Geographic , September 1997, pp. 92-99