Robben Island prison, with Table Mountain in the background, Cape Town, Western Cape province

Robben Island (Dutch for "seal island") is an island in Table Bay, some seven kilometres off the coast of Cape Town.

It is famous for its prison, where former South African President and Nobel Laureate Nelson Mandela and former South African President Kgalema Motlanthe, alongside many other political prisoners, spent decades imprisoned during the apartheid era.

The former prison is now the Robben Island Museum, a Unesco World Heritage Site. Visitor ferries to Robben Island leave several times per day from Nelson Mandela Gateway, at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town.

PHOTO SOURCE: Hein von Horsten, courtesy of, and copyright, South Africa Tourism, a department of the government of South Africa, used with permission.

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