كيب تاون

The written history of the area known today as Cape Town starts with its first mention by Portuguese explorer Bartholomeu Dias in 1488. However, archaeologists have established that the Cape peninsula and the region along the Southwestern coastline of Africa was inhabited by various Khoe and San peoples, who mostly lived a semi-nomadic lifestyle. "There were independent Khoe farmers with large families, there was the relatively small group of Khoe who self-identified as ǁAmmaqua (Watermans) traders, there were the Sonqua line-fishermen who were a San offshoot joined by deserters and outcasts from Khoe groups, and there was also another San clan of herder-hunters inland known as the Ubiqua." The German anthropologist Theophilus Hahn recorded that the original name of the area was 'ǁHui ǃGais' – a toponym in the indigenous Khoe language meaning "where clouds gather."