Bartolomeu Dias

Right in front of you is where Portuguese ships once departed on voyages that would change the world. In 1488, one navigator completed a journey that opened the door to Asia. Bartolomeu Dias became the first European to sail around the southern tip of Africa, proving a sea route to India existed. King João II sent Dias to find where the African continent ended.

After 16 months at sea covering nearly 16,000 miles, violent Atlantic storms drove his ships off course in early 1488. When Dias spotted land again in February, he realized something extraordinary. He had rounded the continent without knowing it. The treacherous weather and massive waves inspired him to name it Cabo das Tormentas, the Cape of Storms. Back in Portugal, the king saw beyond the danger. He renamed it the Cape of Good Hope because this discovery meant European merchants could finally reach India and the spice trade by sea.

The dangerous overland routes controlled by hostile empires could now be avoided. Twelve years later, the sea claimed Dias. In May 1500, his ship sank during a storm off the very cape he had discovered, the place where the Atlantic meets the Indian Ocean.