Robben Island, South Africa - UNESCO World Heritage Site

 Place: Robben Island, South Africa

Significance: Just 11 km off the coast near Cape Town, Robben Island is best known as the prison where Nelson Mandela was incarcerated for 18 years.  The island had been intermittently a prison, a leper colony, or simply a place to take undesirable people for centuries - it gained world-wide notoriety when it was the main place where Blacks opposing apartheid were imprisoned. Nelson Mandela became one of the most famous people in the world as he and others fought from behind bars to rid South Africa of its racist government.

Website: UNESCO World Heritage Site

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The cell where Nelson Mandela lived for 18 years (from whc.unesco.org)

The view of Cape Town from Robben Island (from whc.unesco.org)