Diogo Cão Cross — Cape Cross, 1486

Cape Cross is where Portuguese navigator Diogo Cão erected a stone padrão (stone cross) in 1486 — one of the first recorded European landfalls on sub-Saharan African soil, predating Vasco da Gama’s voyage. The original cross was removed to Germany in 1893 by a German naval expedition (now in the Berlin museum); a replica marks the exact spot. This small, wind-blasted promontory was the furthest south any European had sailed at the time, and the cross was a formal Portuguese claim of possession. A quietly significant historical site combined with the seal colony visit.