Noon Gun

number of times the cannon has been fired 

At exactly 12:00 pm every day - except Sundays and public holidays - a large cannon on the top of Signal Mountain informs the city of Cape Town that it is high noon by firing off a very loud boom. This has been going on continuously for 200 years. The daily noon gun is not only Cape Town's oldest living tradition, but the guns used (there are two of them, just in case one of them fails) are two of the oldest in the world still in daily use.

the two guns (one is backup)

This tradition has managed, somehow, to survive a Dutch then a British colony, a resurgence of Dutch control, British expansion, the Anglo-Boer War, the rise and fall of apartheid and the subsequent new democracy, and it still can be used to set one’s watch. Today the actual firing is done electronically from The South African Astronomical Observatory and its accuracy comes from an atomic clock.

this man loads the gunpowder and igniter

As early as 1806, the Noon Day gun was used as a time signal for ships anchored in Table Bay and the cannon was fired from the Castle of Good Hope. It was moved in 1902 to its present position, where it overlooks Cape Town, the harbour and Table Bay.

first the gunpowder goes in ...

While the firing is done by remote, the loading is done by a man the old fashioned way. First he loads the gunpowder in the front and then about 5 minutes before firing, he drops in the electronic igniter.

then the igniter

Then cover your ears!

Noon ...

Our apartment in De Waterkant is in that colorful row in the lower right below those trees.