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All South Africa Cape Town Time Ball Tower
AO Edited

Time Ball Tower

A 19th-century relic of timekeeping.

Cape Town, South Africa

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CoolCrab
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Time Ball Tower   Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net) / CC-BY-SA-4.0
Time Ball Tower   Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net) / CC-BY-SA-4.0
Time Ball Tower   Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net) / CC-BY-SA-4.0
The time ball itself   Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net) / CC-BY-SA-4.0
  CoolCrab / Atlas Obscura User
  CoolCrab / Atlas Obscura User
  CoolCrab / Atlas Obscura User
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About

Walking through the bustling Cape Town waterfront, you will see many old and new buildings, many of which have a maritime history. Perhaps one of the most important of these buildings is a tiny unsuspecting tower with a large ball on top of it. 

This tower, aptly called the Time Ball Tower, is an 1894 time device similar to the one in the Greenwich Observatory in the United Kingdom, which was used to give a visual signal of the time to ships in the bay, as this was much more accurate than an auditory signal like those of the noon gun, simply because sound travels much slower than light. This was a vital task, as a ship's clock (or chronometer) was needed for navigation, and any drifts could blow a ship off course or worse.  

The tower was initially built on the former Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope, but an 1860s expansion of the harbor obscured the old tower, which created the need for a new one. Initially this was a wooden tower, which was later replaced by the current model in 1894, which remained in use for another 40 years. 

Since then the need for time balls dwindled, and so did their maintenance. The tower was used for a while as a signal repeater for the area, until it was declared a monument and restored in 1997. Since then the time ball has been operational again, and used on occasion.

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Astounding Timepieces Time Towers Clocks

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The tower is freely accessible, but you can't go in.

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Added By

CoolCrab

Edited By

Michelle Cassidy

  • Michelle Cassidy

Published

June 5, 2023

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  • https://www.cape-town-heritage.co.za/heritage-site/time-ball-tower.html
Time Ball Tower
0A Dock Road
Victoria & Alfred Waterfront
Cape Town, 8001
South Africa
-33.905905, 18.419238
Visit Website
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Nearby Places

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miles away

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Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Cape Town

Cape Town

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Stories 6

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