Mossel Bay

Mossel Bay Mosselbaai Mosselbayi
Mossel Bay, Downtown
Mossel Bay Show map of Western Cape Mossel Bay Show map of South Africa Mossel Bay Show map of Africa  Mossel Bay shown within Western Cape
Coordinates: 34°11′00″S 22°08′00″E / 34.18333°S 22.13333°E / -34.18333; 22.13333Coordinates: 34°11′00″S 22°08′00″E / 34.18333°S 22.13333°E / -34.18333; 22.13333
Country	South Africa
Province	Western Cape
District	Eden
Municipality	Mossel Bay
Established	1848
Area
• Total	42.2 km2 (16.3 sq mi)
Population (2011)
• Total	59,031
• Density	1,400/km2 (3,600/sq mi)
Racial makeup (2011)
• Black African	40.1%
• Coloured	40.9%
• Indian/Asian	0.5%
• White	17.6%
• Other	0.9%
First languages (2011)
• Afrikaans	57.4%
• Xhosa	30.7%
• English	6.9%
• Sotho	1.5%
• Other	3.5%
Postal code (street)	6506
PO box	6500
Area code	044

Mossel Bay (Afrikaans: Mosselbaai) is a harbour town of about 130,000 people on the Southern Cape (or Garden Route) of South Africa. It is an important tourism and farming region of the Western Cape Province. Mossel Bay lies 400 kilometers east of the country's seat of parliament, Cape Town (which is also the capital city of the Western Cape Province), and 400 km west of Port Elizabeth, the largest city in the Eastern Cape Province. The older parts of the town occupy the north-facing side of the Cape St Blaize Peninsula, whilst the newer suburbs straddle the Peninsula and have spread eastwards along the sandy shore of the Bay.

The town's economy relied heavily on farming, fishing and its commercial harbour (the smallest in the Transnet Port Authority's stable of South African commercial harbours), until the 1969 discovery of natural offshore gas fields led to the development of the gas-to-liquids refinery operated by PetroSA. Tourism is another driver of Mossel Bay's economy.

Although it is today best known as the place at which the first Europeans landed on South African soil (Bartolomeu Dias and his crew arrived on 3 February 1488), Mossel Bay’s human history can - as local archaeological deposits have revealed - be traced back more than 164,000 years.

The modern history of Mossel Bay began on 3 February 1488, when the Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias landed with his men at a point close to the site of the modern-day Dias Museum Complex. Here they found a spring from which to replenish their water supplies. Dias had been appointed to search for a trading route to India by King John II of Portugal, and, without realising it, actually rounded the Cape of Good Hope before landing at Mossel Bay - which he named Angra dos Vaqueiros (The Bay of Cowherds). Dias is also credited with having given the Cape the name Cabo das Tormentas (the ‘Cape of Storms’), although King John II later changed this to Cabo da Boa Esperança (the Cape of Good Hope).