India eyes “Cape of Good Hope” after the block in Suez Canal

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When the Suez Canal was blocked recently, India had explored the option of re-routing the ships via the Cape of Good Hope.

 About Cape of Good Hope:

• Location: It is a rocky headland. It is on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa.
• The Cape of Good Hope route joins Eastern Asia and Europe to southern parts of Africa.
• Origin of Name: The Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias had originally named the Cape as the Cape of Storms in the 1480s. To attract more people to the Cape Sea Route, it got later renamed as Good Hope.
• A common misconception is that the Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa.
  • However, contemporary geographic knowledge instead states the southernmost point of Africa is Cape Agulhas about 150 km to the east-southeast.
• Significance: The warm-water Agulhas current (Indian Ocean) meets the cold-water Benguela current (Atlantic ocean) between Cape Agulhas and Cape Point (about 1.2 km east of the Cape of Good Hope).

About Cape Agulhas:

• Cape Agulhas is a rocky headland in Western Cape, South Africa.
• It is the geographic southern tip of the African continent. It is also the beginning of the dividing line between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.

Source: The Hindu