Cape Chaunar

Cape Chaunar, Cape Nun, Cap Noun, Cabo de Não or Nant is a cape on the Atlantic coast of Africa, in southern Morocco, between Tarfaya and Sidi Ifni. By the 15th century it was considered insurmountable by Arabs and Europeans, thus resulting its his name meaning cape "no" in Portuguese. Cape Chaunar is the true northern coastal limit of the Sahara desert, although nearby Cape Bojador is frequently mistakenly called this.

History

The thirteenth century Genovese navigators Vandino and Ugolino Vivaldi may have sailed as far as Cape Non before being lost at sea. It was named Cape de Não ("Cape No") by Portuguese mariners during the fifteenth century, being considered the impassable limit for Arab and European sailors, the non plus ultra beyond which no navigation could occur."Quem o passa tornará ou não" (those who cross it, return or not), wrote Venetian explorer Alvise Cadamosto in his book "Navigazione". Starting in 1421, exploratory vessels were sent by Prince Henry the Navigator, managing to cross Cape Non and reaching Cape Bojador, then considered the southern limit of the world, stretching into the "dark sea" (Latin Mare Tenebrarum, Mare Tenebrosum or Bahr al-Zulumat in Arabic) the medieval name for the Atlantic Ocean inaccessible to the sailors of the time.