- published: 09 Dec 2009
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Gansbaai (Afrikaans: "bay of geese," sometimes referred to as Gans Bay) is a fishing village and popular tourist destination in the Overberg District Municipality, Western Cape, South Africa. It is known for its dense population of Great White Sharks and as a whale-watching location.
The main tourist attraction in Gansbaai since approximately 1995 has been cage diving with Great White sharks. It is said[who?] that after Kruger National Park, the Great White sharks attract some of the highest number of tourist to South Africa for any singular activity.
Gansbaai at De Kelders has one of the oldest associations with man in the world. At the time when Neanderthal man was still the dominant species of genus Homo in Europe, a group of modern people (Homo sapiens sapiens) had already made Klipgat Cave their home. Remains have been excavated showing modern man living here more than 70,000 years ago.[citation needed] Klipgat Cave is located in the Walker Bay Nature Reserve, next to De Kelders, the residential shore area of Gansbaai. As one of only three places in South Africa where such old remains have been excavated, Klipgat Cave is one of the most important historical sites in the Western Cape. The reserve and the cave are open to the public.