Robben Island has in the past few years changed from being an infamous incarceration centre to a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Located 12 km from Cape Town in the West Cape Province of South Africa, Robben Island was for more than three centuries used as a place for banishment and imprisonment.

It was here that political and human rights activists were incarcerated by the rulers of the day to thwart their quest for liberalization.

Although it had been in existence for over three hundred years, Robben Island came into the international limelight in the late 20th century during the apartheid years. This was the era in which South African freedom fighters, including Nelson Mandela – former president of South Africa- and the founding leader of the Pan Africanist Congress, Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe,among other leaders were imprisoned.

Mandela was sent to Robben Island in 1963 after receiving a life imprisonment and he remained at the 6 sq km island for 27 years.

At Robben island, political and common-law prisoners were jailed together and their contact with the outside world was limited to receiving and sending two letters a year. Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990 and in 1991 the remaining political detainees were released. 1996 saw the transfer of common-law prisoners to the mainland.

In 1997 Robben Island was transformed a into museum a move that placed it among the most popular tour destinations in South Africa. The Robben Island Museum, which acts as a focal point of South African heritage, runs educational programmes for schools, youths and adults, facilitates tourism development, conducts ongoing research related to Robben Island and fulfills an archiving function.

Robben Island was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999. UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) is a non-profit organisation that seeks to encourage the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity.

In addition to Robben Island, South Africa boasts seven other world heritage sites. These include Sterkfontein, Swartkrans, Kromdraai and surroundings yielded the famous Taung Skull Fossil – from the hominid Austalopithecus africanus – in 1924. The area is often called the “cradle of humanity”. The elevation of the Robben Island to a world heritage site status, according to UNESCO, symbolises the triumph of the human spirit, of freedom, and of democracy over oppression.

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.

Robben Island Museum is reached via ferries. All ferries depart from Nelson Mandela Gateway, at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town. Once on the Island, visitors are shown around the former prison whose tours depicts the lives of political prisoners detained from 1960’s to 1990. Former Robben Island prisoners conduct the prison tours.

Ferries depart from Nelson Mandela Gateway daily at 9am, 10am, 12pm, 1pm and 3pm. The standard tour to Robben Island is three and a half hours long, including the two half-hour ferry rides. Most People who've toured Robben Island have also enjoyed South African luxury tours to the Cape Winelands, Table Mountains and Kruger National Park, among others.