This site was chosen for the spectacular view of False Bay and the historical interest of the hillside pumping station.
False Bay is the body of water defined by Cape Hangklip (Dutch/Afrikaans for "Hang(ing)-rock") and the Cape Peninsula in the extreme South-West of South Africa.
The eastern and western shores of the bay are very rocky and even mountainous; in places large cliffs plunge into deep water. The northern shore, however, is defined by a very long, curving, sandy beach. This sandy, northern perimeter of the bay is the southern edge of the area known as the Cape Flats. The bay is 30 kilometres wide at its widest point.
Bartolomeu Dias in 1488 first referred to the bay as "the gulf between the mountains". The name "False Bay" was applied early on (at least three hundred years ago) by sailors who confused the bay with Table Bay to the north. The confusion arose because sailors returning from the east (The Dutch East Indies) initially confused Cape Point and Cape Hangklip, which are somewhat similar in form. Hangklip was known to the early Portuguese seafarers as Cabo Falso, or False Cape, and the name of the bay derived from the cape.
The Steenbras Dam is an earth-fill type dam located in the Hottentots-Holland mountains, above Gordon’s Bay. The dam is named after the steenbras, a fish endemic to South Africa. For much of the first half of the twentieth century it was the main reservoir for Cape Town but is now only one of many dams that supply the city.
There is a hydroelectric plant at the dam. The Steenbras pumped-storage scheme was opened in 1979 to supplement Cape Town’s electricity supply during periods of peak demand. Steenbras Upper Dam is directly upstream and is used for the Steenbras Power Station (pumped storage).