Which island at the southern tip of South America is home to Cape Horn?

Cape Horn is located on Hornos Island at the southern tip of South America.

Hornos Island is part of the Hermite Islands in the Tierra del Fuego archipelago and lies within Chile’s Cabo de Hornos National Park. The cape is a headland on the island, rather than the name of the entire island or the nearby larger Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego.

Dutch navigators Willem Schouten and Jacob Le Maire first rounded the cape in 1616. They named it Kaap Hoorn after Hoorn, a city in the Netherlands. Cape Horn became one of the world’s most notorious maritime landmarks because ships rounding it faced powerful winds, heavy seas and difficult currents.

A frequent geographical mistake is calling Cape Horn the southernmost point of South America. It is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago, but Águila Islet lies farther south on the continental mainland, and the Diego Ramírez Islands lie farther south offshore. A Chilean naval station, lighthouse and albatross memorial stand on Hornos Island.