Cape Town's Noon Gun being loaded

Mr. Pretorius, seen here loading the electric fired cartridge that sets off the 1.3Kg charge of black powder - the final step before the daily firing of Cape Town's historic Noon Gun. Situated high up on Signal Hill's, Lion Baterry, it has a clear view of the sea as well as the city below, as can be seen in the background of this picture. There are actually two guns performing this ancient ritual of announcing 12 o' clock to the Mother City, alternating between them every other day, with the 2nd on standby for incase the duty gun fails to fire. Since the terrein is now open to the public to see the daily firing of the noon gun, this particular gun has been replaced by a similar one, the two now standing side by side.

Soon after the English occupation of the Cape in 1795, the Dutch guns were removed from Imoff Battery at the Castle and replaced by the latest English 18 pounders. A time signal has been fired by one of these guns since 1806.

Since the advent of the "galvanic telegraph" it became possible to trigger a gun remotely and since 1864 the noon gun has been accurately fired from the master clock of the oldest timekeeper in the country, the South African Astronomical Observatory as it is still being fired today. As Cape Town developed and grew, the noise of the gun became too loud and violent for the city centre and the guns were moved up to signal hill's Lion Battery from where they are still fired today. The first signal fired from here was on the 4th of August 1902. These same guns are still in use today and is Cape Town's oldest living tradition; the 2 guns used are the oldest guns in daily use in the world.

Click here for more information and see the gun firing.

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