A toe-hold in the Cape

Driving out of Cape Town you pass the distinctive walls of the Castle of Good Hope - an old star-shaped fortress (and the oldest colonial building in South Africa) that was built in the 17th Century by the Dutch East India Company, which had the toe-hold in the Cape to supply passing ships with fresh water and produce. It replaced the flimsy fort that was there before when it seemed that they might have to fend off the British. It has the distinction of being able to say that not one shot was fired in anger from it. When the British did arrive, they meekly handed it over without a fight. For a potted history of Cape Town, click here.