Robben Island

Another tourist thing to do in Cape Town is to take the ferry out to Robben Island. Robben Island was once where a prison was held for political prisoners. There is also a small village on the island. People still live out there, but the prison is not used. One of their most famous prisoners was Nelson Mandela and current South African president Jacob Zuma.

After we got off the boat this was the entrance to the island.

Here is a photograph of what it looked like with the prisoners coming into the island. They were given very little when they got here. Just shorts and shirt, and they all had to have their heads shaved.

This island was also a place for those with leprosy, starting in 1845, to be quarantined. This is the cemetery of those who died of leprosy.

This was the limestone pit where prisoners came to dig. Many of them years later were diagnosed with diseases because they had inhaled so much limestone dust. It was huge and for them to just have picks and small shovels to dig all of this was crazy!

This pile of rocks was started by Nelson Mandela. One day he just laid a stone in the middle of the pit, and through the years other prisoners also went and put stones there.

They also dug out this cave where they would have some talks about things, you can barely see them but they even build out some benches inside.

The church on the island has been there for a long time.

It is also one that is famous because a lot of people come to it on Valentine's Day to get married. Our tour guide told us this past Feb. 14th there were 12 weddings!!!!

Here is the school K-12 on the island.

At the edge looking out over the bay.

The island has had much destruction and I found what seems to be a chimney on the beach.

The lighthouse.

A rotting whale, and let me tell you that smell will never go away for me. P.U.!

This is a gun that was build during WWII. They wanted to protect Cape Town if anything happened down there, well turns out they didn't use it. Mostly because they didn't finish building it until AFTER the war was over. :) Our tour guide said it was in proper African timeframe...which is true.

More on the prisoners of Robben Island next.