Editing Robben Island (section)

===Robben Island lighthouse===
[[File:Robben Island-003.jpg|thumb|left|Robben Island Lighthouse]]

Due to the maritime danger of Robben Island and its near waters, [[Jan van Riebeeck]], the first Dutch colonial administrator in Cape Town in the 1650s, ordered that huge bonfires were to be lit at night on top of Fire Hill, the highest point on the island (now Minto Hill). These were to warn [[Dutch East India Company|VOC]] ships that they were approaching the island.

In 1865, Robben Island lighthouse was completed on Minto Hill.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb__8BBAAAAIAAJ|title=''The Seaman's Guide to the Navigation of the Indian Ocean and China Sea''|author=William Henry Rosser, James Frederick Imray|page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb__8BBAAAAIAAJ/page/n349 280]|year=1867|access-date=4 October 2008|publisher=J. Imray & Son}}</ref> The cylindrical masonry tower, which has an attached lightkeeper's house at its base, is {{convert|18|m|ft}} high with a lantern gallery at the top. In 1938, the lamp was converted to electricity. The lighthouse uses a flashing lantern instead of a revolving lamp; it shines for a duration of 5 seconds every seven seconds. The 46,000-[[candela]] beam, visible up to {{convert|24|nmi|km|order=flip}} away, flashes white light away from [[Table Bay]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lighthousedepot.com/lite_explorer.asp?action=display_details&LighthouseID=1146|title=Robben Island Lighthouse|access-date=29 October 2014|archive-date=14 June 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110614085756/http://www.lighthousedepot.com/lite_explorer.asp?action=display_details&LighthouseID=1146|url-status=dead}}</ref> A secondary red light acts as a navigation aid for vessels sailing south-southeast.