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Simonstown, South Africa 1/29/
Simon's Town is a village and naval base on the shores of False Bay on the east side of the Cape Peninsula. It is named after Simon van der Stel, an early governor of the Cape Colony in 1687. For over two centuries from 1814 it served as the British Royal Navy's base in the South Atlantic, before it was handed over to the South African Navy in 1975. Today Simon's Town is considered a suburb of the greater Cape Town, and is widely (but incorrectly) referred to as Simonstown, or Simonstad in Afrikaans.
The Simon's Town Martello Tower within the Naval Base was built in 1796 by the British as a part of their naval defences. The tower is 42 ft high with walls 6 ft thick. It was restored in 1972, in conjunction with the South African Navy and proclaimed a National Monument. Today it houses a small museum.
Boulders Beach is located a few kilometres to the south of Simon's Town and it is here that small coves with white sandy beaches and calm shallow water are interspersed between boulders of Cape granite. There has been a colony of African Jackass penguins viewable to the public at Boulders Beach since 1985.
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