One of Cape Town's Main Landmarks Up for Grabs

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Hout Bay

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Cape Town is in shock. One of the city's most famous landmarks - apart from Table Mountain - is for sale. According to an add in a local property magazine, Mount Sentinel, which is privately owned, is up for grabs for an amount of 12 million rand ($1,2 million).

The mountain, which marks the entrance to the harbor town Hout Bay, is one of the most photographed natural features of the Cape Peninsula. When cruising over Chapman's Peak Drive - one of the most spectacular coastal drives in South Africa -  it is impossible to miss the pointy mountain which seems to be a beacon of Hout Bay's fishermen.

One of the worries is that the mountain will be rezoned into a residential area. At the moment the land is zoned rural, which allows one residence to be built on the land.

Over the past years, the coast line of and around Cape Town has been subjected to development of hotels, apartment buildings and holiday homes.

In an interview with local newspaper the Cape Times, Andy Gubb of the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa, said any attempts to develop the Sentinel would be met with fierce resistance from Capetonians. "We will fight it tooth and nail. So much of the Peninsula has disappeared under concrete. Any remaining land outside the urban edge should go to a conservation agency.