Cape Route

For a full list of itineraries, please visit our Halal Food and Travel website. The Cape Route the route around Africa the Carreira da Índia or the European-Asian sea route, used to be among the world's most important routes of commerce. The first known completion was made by Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama in 1498.

Cape Route Halal Travel Guide

Ancient and medieval scholars disagreed whether the Atlantic and Indian Ocean were connected. The 15th century expansion of the Islamic Ottoman Empire disrupted commerce along the Silk Road, and encouraged Europeans to find a new route to Asia. The voyages of Columbus aimed for Asia, but instead established European contact with the Americas.

Vasco da Gama's discovery of the Cape Route, as well as the Columbian voyages, inspired the Magellan-Elcano circumnavigation.

Most of the Portuguese Empire was founded along the route. Overseas trade made the Mediterranean and the Silk Road less important for Eurasian commerce (leading to a decline of the Medieval and Renaissance Italian city-states), and shifted power to western Europe.

The Clipper Route is an extension, to reach East Asia or Oceania across the central Indian Ocean.

The Suez Canal, completed in 1867, created a shortcut between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean. The Suez route was most useful to steamboats, and put an end to the Age of Sail. In the 21st century and the Cape Route is still in use by sailing yachts, and by Capesize ships — the largest vessels, which cannot pass through the Suez Canal.

The route

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• Lisbon, Portugal 38.7071, -9.1353 was the starting point for most Portuguese expeditions
• Gibraltar 36.138706, -5.347422 for arrival through the Mediterranean
• Madeira 32.6511, -16.9097
• Tenerife, Canary Islands 28.268611, -16.605556
• Cape Verde 15.916667, -24.083333
• Dakar, Senegal 14.681, -17.441
• Recife, Brazil -8.0500, -34.9000}}: Prevailing winds and currents on the Atlantic take ships from Europe westwards across the Atlantic, to Brazil.
• Cape Town, South Africa -33.9333, 18.4667
• Zanzibar, Tanzania -6.175, 39.18
• Mombasa, Kenya -4.05, 39.666667
• Malindi, Kenya -3.223611, 40.13
• Kozhikode (Calicut), India 11.25, 75.77
• Goa, India 15.498889, 73.827778}}