Cape Cross is a small headland in the South Atlantic in the Skeleton Coast of Western Namibia, approximately 60 km North of Henties Bay.
The Portuguese navigator and explorer Diogo Cão was tasked with finding a sea route to India. During his search he would claim places along the way for Portugal by placing stone crosses, called padrão. During his second voyage, in 1484–1486, Cão reached Cape Cross in January 1486, being the first European to visit this area, erected one of two padrãos.The original Cape Cross padrão was removed in 1893 by Captain Gottlieb Becker, commander of the SMS Falke of the German Navy, and taken to the Deutshces Historisches Museum (German History Museum) in Berlin. A simple wooden cross was put in its place but was replaced two years later by a stone replica. At the end of the 20th century, thanks to private donations, another cross, closer in similarity to the original one, was erected at Cape Cross, and thus there are now two crosses there.Today Cape Cross is a protected area and owned by the government of Namibia under the name Cape Cross Seal Reserve. The reserve is the home of one of the largest colonies of Cape fur seals in the world.
