| Chapman's Peak Drive | |
|---|---|
 Chapman's Peak Drive facing southwards. | |
| Length | 9.5 km |
| Traversed by | M6 |
| Location | Cape Peninsula,Western Cape,South Africa |
| Range | Table Mountain |
| Coordinates | 34°5′14″S18°21′38″E / 34.08722°S 18.36056°E /-34.08722; 18.36056 |
 Location of Chapman's Peak Drive in theWestern Cape Province. | |
  Chapman's Peak (Western Cape) Show map of Western Cape Chapman's Peak (Cape Town) Show map of Cape Town | |
Chapman's Peak is a mountain on the western side of theCape Peninsula, betweenHout Bay andNoordhoek inCape Town,South Africa. The western flank of the mountain falls sharply for hundreds of metres into theAtlantic Ocean, and a road, known asChapman's Peak Drive, hugs the near-vertical face of the mountain, linking Hout Bay to Noordhoek. Tourists and locals often stop at viewpoints along this road, which offer views of Hout Bay,The Sentinel peak and surrounds, as well as over Noordhoek Beach.
Chapman's Peak Drive is part of the route of two of South Africa's biggest mass-participation races, theCape Argus Cycle Race and theTwo Oceans Marathon.
Chapman's Peak is named after John Chapman, the pilot of an English ship becalmed in today'sHout Bay in 1607. The skipper sent his pilot ashore to find provisions, and the name was recorded as Chapman's Chaunce.[2]
Chapman's Peak Drive was hacked out of the face of the mountain between 1915 and 1922, and at the time was regarded as a major feat ofengineering. The road was closed in the 1990s, after a rockfall caused a death and a subsequent lawsuit,[3] and subsequently reopened after being re-engineered to protect motorists from falling rocks. It was reopened in 2005 as atoll road, part of theM6. The road was again closed for a number of months beginning on 19 June 2008 "as a result of risk areas identified on the mountain above the road".[4]
The top of Chapman's Peak consists of flat, sedimentary rocks related to those that formTable Mountain. The base of the mountain, however, consists ofCape Granite and the two formations meet at a geologicalunconformity that is world-famous amongstearth scientists.
Two different endangered vegetation types can be found along this road, and correspond to the two main geological formations. They arePeninsula Sandstone Fynbos andCape Granite Fynbos and they are both endemic to the city of Cape Town, occurring nowhere else.[5][6]
There is an old, abandonedmanganese mine on the northwestern slopes of the peak. The remains of ajetty from which the ore used to be shipped are directly below the workings.
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Media related toChapman’s Peak Drive at Wikimedia Commons