The History of Mossel Bay
The History of Mossel Bay is unique and was pivotal to the development of the rest of South Africa. The first economic transaction in South Africa took place here along with several other “firsts” that changed the history of South Africa forever..
This is where modern human behaviour emerged more than 164,000 years ago, and where Southern Africans first met European explorers more than 500 years ago – a meeting that’s celebrated at the Dias Museum Complex (the largest complex of its kind in the Southern Cape). Here you’ll find a Maritime Museum (housing a life-size replica of the Caravel in which Bartholomew Dias first rounded the Cape all those years ago); a Cultural Museum, a Shell Museum and Aquarium; an ethno-botanical garden with its Braille Trail and the famous Post Office Tree in which Dias hid a letter to his compatriot Joao da Silva (and, incredibly, da Silva found it!).