L'Agulhas is the most southerly village in Africa and was so named ("needles") by the Portuguese who found that here a compass needle would point due north with no magnetic deviation. Offshore, the Agulhas Bank is a very rich fishing ground.
Cape Agulhas itself marks the dividing point between the Indian and Atlantic Oceans and the coastline hereabouts is well-known for great rollers breaking on the rocks. The lighthouse on the cape is the second oldest in South Africa and was designed to recall the Pharos of Alexandria, one of the wonders of the ancient world.
