About Mossel Bay

Nomadic Khoi-San people were the first inhabitants of the Mossel Bay area. A cave in which there have been found remains of KhoiSan settlement is now a national monument and the starting point of a walking trail to the nearby town of Dana Bay.

The first contact between Southern Africans and Europeans took place on Santos Beach in Mossel Bay in 1488 between Diaz and the Khoi-San. The meeting was peaceful, and both sides were willing to trade. Diaz erected a cross, and called the bay Augauda de São Bras, as they landed on the festival day of St. Blaize.

The first trading between inhabitants of Europe and Southern African was in 1497 between Vasco da Gama and the local Khoi-San tribe. In the following years, Portuguese sailors would use the Bay as a halfway station where the KhoiSan offered them food. A small stream was used for fresh water and now only flows beneath the surface.

The Diaz Complex marks the location of the historical landing of Diaz. The 500 year old Post Office Tree, a national monument, can still be seen at the site, now harbouring a mail box shaped as a shoe. Also, located in the complex are the remnants of the Spring, the Maritime Museum, which houses a replica of the caraval on which Diaz arrived, which arrived in Mossel Bay in 1987, a gift from the Government of Portugal. Another highlight a map of Mossel Bay produced by early Dutch sailor, Cornelius de Houtman in 1595. The Museum is housed in the old Saw Mill Building, the Granary which is now the entrance to the complex which boasts a fascinating exhibition on the cultural life of coloured communities in Mossel Bay during apartheid, inter alia, the Shirley Building where the shell museum and small aquarium is located - it also hosts a 476 kg Great White Shark, caught of the coast of nearby Hartenbos and Munroshoek, the oldest houses in town. Recently, the building in which a Cultural History Museum was housed for many years was sold and became a private arts centre. The first settlers were granted land in Mossel Bay in 1729, 77 years after the Dutch colonised the area presently Cape Town.