Cape Agulhas is the geographic southern tip of the African continent, and the official dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian oceans. Historically, the cape has been known to sailors as a major hazard on the traditional clipper route and is sometimes regarded as one of the great capes. The sea off Cape Agulhas is notorious for winter storms and mammoth rogue waves, which can range up to 30 metres highand can sink even large ships. The conflicting currents of water of different densities, and the west winds blowing against the Agulhas Current, can create extremely hazardous wave conditions; these are further exacerbated by the shallow waters of the Agulhas Bank, a broad, shallow part of the continental shelf which juts 250 kilometres south from the cape, after which it falls steeply away to the abyssal plain.