This is probably the most famous island in South Africa. If you hear the word Robben Island, your first thought and association is with Madiba (as Nelson Mandela is known to South Africans). Robben Island is an island in Table Bay and lies about 8 km from Cape Town and measures around 3.4 km by 2 km. The name was given to the island because of the seals (robben is the Netherlands for seal) that lived here. Geographically, this island used to be part of the African continent many years ago.
The Netherlands were not the first Europeans to walk on this island. The Portuguese visited this island many years ago before the English admiral set foot here in 1591. In 1601 Joris van Spilbergen (from Netherlands) followed and only in 1652 Jan van Riebeeck came. They tried very hard to develop the fish and seal industry on this island, but because it was so remote, it was used to ban people that had incurable sicknesses and crazy people (from 1846 1931). Even people that stole sheep or cows were banned to this island, centuries ago.
During the Second World War, the island was used and a light tower was built because of the bad stranding record. After the war...