The Signal Hill is a famous, flat-topped hill located in Cape Town, next to Lion's Head and Table Mountain. The hill is also known as ‘The Lion's Flank’ but this term is obsolescent. It is known for the Noon gun that is operated there by the South African Astronomical Observatory. There is a road to the summit and that vantage point provides spectacular views over Cape Town and surroundings, especially at dawn or sunset.
The Noon Gun has been a historic symbol of time-keeping in Cape Town, South Africa since 1806. The gun is situated on Signal Hill, close to the centre of the city. The guns were originally used to announce to the interior the arrival of an important ship, perhaps requiring provisions for a trip onward to India. Sailng ships were slow by modern standards and could not store fresh food for long periods, so the provisioning of vessels was one of the major commercial functions at Cape Town in those olden days. Indeed, the city was widely renowned as ‘The Tavern of the Seas’. There were no telephones or telegraphs before the latter half of the 19th Century and the sound of the guns travelled much faster than a dispatch rider on a horse. The use of the guns to indicate that a ship was in port was discontinued when more modern means of communication were developed somewhat more than a hundred years ago.
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