Robben Island

Robben Island lies in Table Bay, about 7 kilometres west of the coast at Bloubergstrand and roughly 11 kilometres from the Cape Town waterfront. Its name comes from the old Dutch word for seals. The island is run by the Robben Island Museum and was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999.

From the seventeenth century the island was used to banish and imprison people, first by the Dutch East India Company and later by the British. It also served as a leper colony, a hospital and a military base during the Second World War.

From 1961 to 1991 it held political prisoners under apartheid. Nelson Mandela was imprisoned here for 18 years, together with other leaders such as Walter Sisulu and later President Kgalema Motlanthe. The maximum security prison closed in 1996, and the museum opened in 1997.

Tours leave by ferry from the Nelson Mandela Gateway at the V&A Waterfront and take about three and a half hours including the crossing. A bus tour visits the lime quarry, Robert Sobukwe's house and other sites, and former political prisoners often guide the visit to the prison and Mandela's cell. Ferries are cancelled in rough weather, so book ahead and check on the day.

The island is roughly oval, about 3.3 kilometres from north to south, and sits at the entrance to Table Bay. Bartolomeu Dias was the first European to record it, in 1488. Its first known prisoner was probably Autshumato, held there in the mid-seventeenth century.

The leper colony shaped the island for decades. From 1845, patients were moved from the Hemel-en-Aarde colony near Caledon, at first voluntarily and free to leave. The Leprosy Repression Act of May 1892 made admission compulsory: before then about 25 people a year were sent to the island, but in 1892 the number rose to 338, with 250 more in 1893.

Robben Island held three future presidents of South Africa: Nelson Mandela, Kgalema Motlanthe and Jacob Zuma. Ticket prices differ for South African residents and international visitors and are listed on the Robben Island Museum's official booking site.