Robben Island Museum

From the 17th to the 20th centuries, Robben Island served as a place of banishment, isolation and imprisonment. Rebel princes from present day Indonesia, convicts from the Cape, and defiant chiefs from the Eastern Cape were removed from society and brought to the Island in chains.

The notorious prison on the Island was also used to exile political prisoners of the apartheid era between the 1960s and 1991.

Today it is a World Heritage Site and museum, a poignant reminder to the newly democratic South Africa of the price some paid for freedom.

 

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Tour Schedule

Ferries depart at 9am, 11am, 1pm and 3pm, weather permitting, from Nelson Mandela Gateway, at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town. Tickets cost R180 for adults and R90 for children (U/18). More about Robben Island Tours...

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Latest News

New exhibition: Forgotten Legends: The Story of Autshumato (16.12.08)
This exhbition opened at the Nelson Mandela Gateway on 16 December that runs until 15 March 2009. It tells the story of Autshumato, a Khoekhoe leader known to the Dutch colonists of the mid-1600s as Harry. Entrance to the exhibition is free.
Read more...

Did you know?

In addition to penguins, Robben Island supports some of the world’s most important breeding colonies of Bank Cormorants, Crowned Cormorants and Hartlaub’s Gulls. It further supports a growing population of African Black Oystercatchers, representing approximately 5 per cent of the global population of the species.