[They say, that Bartolomeus Dias, a Portuguese mariner and explorer was the first European navigator to round the southern tip of Africa in 1488.]
Yet Ahmed Muhiddin Piri documented knowledge that seemed to precede this date. Better known as Piri Reis, a Ottoman admiral. He gained fame as a cartographer when he prepared a world map showing the antarctic continent, before it was covered in ice. According to his imprinting text on his maps, he had drawn his maps using about 20 foreign charts and mappae mundi (Arab, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Indian and Greek)
Although it is said that Bartolomeus Dias was commissioned by King John ll of Portugal in search of a trade route around the southern tip of Africa, and to search for Prester John, a legendary figure believed to be the powerful Christian ruler of a realm somewhere beyond Europe, possibly in the African interior. No contemporary documents have ever been found in the well maintained archives in Portugal's School of Navigation, for this royal commission.
The Portuguese School of Navigation is in possession of a map, dated 1441, showing a sea route around Africa (a copy is in the Mossel Bay Maritime Museum).
Herodotus, 'The Father of History", wrote in 600BC, that the Phoenicians had sailed around the coast of Africa.
It is alleged that the South African postal service began with a letter left in a boot beneath the 600-year-old Milkwood tree at the Dias Museum Complex, but old people in Mossel bay say that the old original tree was washed away in a flood many years ago.
Some people speculate that a foreign looking European boot with a letter in would have been discovered and interfered with by the indigenous (Khoi San!) people living there during the long time that it was lying there.
Requirements to log this cache: Please submit a photo with your log proving that you have been here, at the Diaz Museum for this geocache. Please include your caching name visible on the photo, or a geocaching Travel Bug, or a Geocaching emblem, or your Geocaching device opened onto this cache page for your photo. Due to privacy issues, you do not need to include your face in the qualification photo. Entries without the required photo may be deleted.
There may be an entry fee charged to enter the Diaz Museum Complex.
Mosselbaai: Seepoort van die Tuinroete, by Sue van Waart.
Virtual Rewards 2.0 - 2019/2020
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between June 4, 2019 and June 4, 2020. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 2.0 on the Geocaching Blog.