Cape Town is considered a Beta City on the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. The Dutch India Company founded the town as a supply station for Dutch ships sailing to East Africa, India, and the Far East. Jan van Riebeeck arrived on 6 April 1652 and established the first permanent European settlement in South Africa.
Robben Island, located 6 kilometers from Cape Town, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Nelson Mandela is its most famous prisoner having spent 18 of his 27 years of imprisonment here. He, of course, went on to serve as South Africa's president from 1994-1999. Two other South African presidents also spent time on Robben Island as prisoners - Kgalema Motlanthe and Jacob Zuma. Mandela also went on the win the Nobel Peace Prize. The island has been used for 400 years as a prison where people were isolated, banished, and exiled. It has also been used as a leper colony, a post office, a grazing ground, a mental hospital, and an outpost.
The maximum security prison closed to prisoners in 1991 and the medium security prison was closed five years later. It is now a UNESCO World Heritage site for its importance to South Africa's political history and development as a democratic society. Thousands of tourists now visit the prison via ferry and it is open year round. Nelson Mandela's former cell is part of the tour.
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