Fish Hoek Valley

The Fish Hoek Valley is situated in the Cape Peninsula, eighteen miles south of Cape Town, South Africa. It takes its name from the town of Peak) on the north; Fish Hoek Bay and False Bay on the east; mountains (including Elsie's Peak, Rooikrans, and Slangkop) on the south; and Chapman's Bay and the Atlantic Ocean on the west. It is 13 kilometres from west to east, and between 3 and 6 kilometres from north to south. The valley has several rivers and lakes.

The predominant vegetation type in this valley is endangered Hangklip Sand Fynbos. However, the sides of the valley are home to Cape Granite Fynbos, and Peninsula Sandstone Fynbos can be found higher up on the surrounding mountains. The latter two vegetation types (also both endangered) are endemic to the Cape Peninsula and can be found nowhere else in the world.

Fish Hoek Valley was once rural, but today it is largely covered by suburbs and townships such as Kommetjie, Ocean View, Noordhoek, The Lakes, Masiphumelele, Capri Village, Sunnydale, Sun Valley, Fish Hoek, and Clovelly. Some rural aspects have been preserved in the form of heritage areas and parts of the Table Mountain National Park.

Pre-historic

Many millennia ago, the valley was a channel separating two islands off the African mainland. By 20 000 years ago, the sea had receded, the channel and the isthmus separating the islands from the mainland had become dry land, and the islands had become a peninsula.

By 10 000 BCE, pre-Bushman people were living in caves in the slopes lining the valley. Several of their skeletons, weapons and other artefacts were unearthed in Peers Cave on the north-eastern side of the valley, in 1927. The skeletons were named 'Fish Hoek Man'.

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Wikipedia