Table
Mountain is a flat-topped mountain forming a prominent landmark overlooking the
city of Cape Town in South Africa. It is a significant tourist attraction, with
many visitors using the cableway to take a ride to the top. The mountain forms
part of the Table Mountain National Park.
The main feature of
Table Mountain is a level plateau approximately 3 km from side to side, surrounded
by steep cliffs. The plateau, flanked by Devil's Peak to the east and by Lion's
Head to the west, forms a dramatic backdrop to Cape Town and its Table Bay harbour,
and together with Signal Hill form the natural amphitheatre of the City Bowl. The
highest point on Table Mountain is towards the eastern end of the plateau and
is marked by Maclear's Beacon, a stone cairn built in 1865 by Sir Thomas Maclear
for trigonometrical survey. It is 1,086 m (3,563 ft) above sea level, about 19
m higher than the cable station at the western end of the plateau. The cliffs
of the main plateau are split by Platteklip Gorge ("Flat Stone Gorge"),
which provides an easy and direct ascent to the summit and was the route taken
by Antonio de Saldanha on the first recorded ascent of the mountain in 1503.[1] The
flat top of the mountain is often covered by cloud spilling over the top to form
the "table cloth". Table Mountain is at the northern end of a
sandstone mountain range that forms the spine of the Cape Peninsula. To the south
of the main plateau is a lower part of the range called the Back Table. On the
Atlantic coast of the peninsula, the range is known as the Twelve Apostles. The
range continues southwards to Cape Point.
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