Robben Island is a prison island off Capetown, South Africa, best known as the jail where Nelson Mandela was incarcerated for eighteen years.

The island has a dubious history as a place of imprisonment and exile long before the rise of apartheid. Its first prison use is thought to be as early as the 17th century when opponents of Dutch colonies around the world were sent there, while British forces sentenced African leader Makanda Nxele to life imprisonment there early in the 19th century. For almost a century, starting in 1836, lepers were sent to male and female colonies on separate parts of the island.

South Africa’s apartheid regime opened the maximum security prison in 1959, and over the subsequent 32 years over 3000 men – mostly political prisoners – suffered through brutal policies and barbaric conditions. Recently-elected South African president Jacob Zuma was one of many notable inmates.

The lime quarry was one of several work sites for prisoners sentenced to hard labour.

Nelson Mandela spent eighteen years in cell block B before being freed in 1990.

The island and prison now serve as a museum and a reminder of the resistance against a terrible regime.

Thanks to yikesahootie.

As well as being a holiday here in the UK, today is Star Wars Day (yes, simply because of the bad pun I’m afraid). So here’s a roundup of some Star Wars related sights!

First up is Star Wars Path near Atlanta, Georgia. There’s a road sign too, but it isn’t really legible on Street View. What I don’t know however, is how it got its name?

In the original Star Wars movie the spaceport of Mos Eisley was on the planet Tatooine, but in fact it was filmed here at Matmata in Tunisia. Some interior scenes were even filmed in the underground homes of the people who live here, who these days make good money from charging tourists to take pictures.

Last week on Twitter we just happened to see these rather unconvincing-looking portraits of some Star Wars characters, that form part of an otherwise impressive piece of French graffiti.

Does anyone know of other Star Wars themed sights that we can visit today?

Thanks to Keir Clarke and Virtual Globe Trotting.

The controversial Moroccan Wall, or The Berm, is a system of 3m-high walls at least 2,500km long that was built to completely divide the entire country of Western Sahara.

Constructed by Moroccan forces between 1980 and 1987, Morocco considers the area to the west of the wall to be its Southern Provinces, and decided to protect them from Polisario forces seeking Western Sahara’s independence.

The protected area was initially just a small portion of the north-western part of the country, but by building a succession of six different walls, the Moroccans expanded their territory to occupy the majority of the country.

The area east of the wall is called the Free Zone and is controlled by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, though refugees from the area currently live in Algeria. UN troops are active in the area attempting to enforce cease-fire agreements, though landmines are still a major problem. Polisario supporters have labelled the barrier the Wall of Shame.

The wall begins its journey to Morocco at the Atlantic coast, and on its way crosses mountainous areas, as well as barren, unpopulated desert – where it’s often overrun by sand dunes.

Despite these breaches, the combination of walls, fences, and bunkers makes for a formidable obstruction, thanks to manned observation posts – which in some areas are positioned as regularly as every kilometre.

These forward posts are supported by larger, more heavily armed posts, one of which we can see here next to an ‘official’ border post in the south. Elsewhere we can see what looks like the charred remains of another. I wonder what happened here?

More on the Moroccan Wall at Wikipedia.

Thanks to Chris.

Right in the middle of the Sahara desert, in the dunes of northern Niger, there’s a circle which is clearly not a natural formation.

The circle itself is roughly 52 metres across, but if we zoom out a little, we can see eight other markings which mark the sides and corners of a huge square area, about 620 metres on each side.

This French website claims that French soldiers created similar looking circles and markings elsewhere in the Sahara “at the beginning of the aviation era”, although the reason why is unclear. Although the one in the article has no coverage yet National Geographic has a ground level photo of it.

However, very faintly visible above the circle are another set of markings, which might have once been a makeshift runway.

On closer examination, it seems that this particular circle has been “updated” since it was originally made. It’s a little hard to make out, but in the centre of the circle is the word “FACHI”, which it turns out, is the name of the nearest village.

See also the previously posted mysterious circle in a square in Saudi Arabia.

Thanks to Crash.

As a follow-up to our recent story about the largest ship graveyard in the Western hemisphere, today we’re visiting Mauritania, where we find the world’s largest ship graveyard!

The port of Nouadhibou is the final resting place of over 300 ships. Unlike the en masse arrival of ships at Mallows Bay, here the number of craft has built up over time, as corrupt officials accepted bribes from boat owners to allow them to dump their vessels in the area¹.

The ships are everywhere! Some are rusting on the beaches, some are overturned just metres from local fishing boats, and even more are anchored in deeper waters, either alone or tied together in rafts of up to 9 ships.

There are so many abandoned ships that you have to wonder how the local fishing fleet and commercial vessels navigate safely when leaving the port.²

In an effort to clean up the local environment, several solutions have been put forward for consideration. Of these suggestions, towing the ships to other locations would seem to be just a matter of moving the problem, and blowing them up surely can’t be the best way to improve things!

There’s a set of pictures that has circulated amongst many blogs, but Artificial Owl has a different set, while Geographical.co.uk has some good images and information.

Thanks to Christoph.