The Noon Gun has been a historic time signal in Cape Town, South Africa, since 1806. It consists of a pair of black powder Dutch naval guns, fired alternatingly with one serving as a backup. The guns are situated on Signal Hill, close to the centre of the city. The sight seeing point is officially permanently closed, and public entrance is unattainable.

A similar tradition exists in different other locations around the world, including in Nice (France), Hong Kong and at both Québec citadel and Halifax citadel (Canada).

The settlement at the Cape of Good Hope was founded by the Dutch in 1652 and the signal guns were originally part of the regular artillery at the Imhoff Battery at the Castle in Cape Town.

The guns, which are still in use today, are 18 pounder smooth bore muzzle loading guns, and were designed by captain Thomas Blomfield in 1786. They were cast by Walker & Co. in early 1794, and proof fired at Woolwich in June 1794. After this type of gun was adopted by the Royal Navy as their standard naval gun, the Noon Guns were brought to Cape Town during the 1795 occupation.

In 1795 during the Napoleonic Wars, Britain took the Cape Colony from the Dutch East India Company ((De) Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC) in Dutch). The VOC transferred its territories and claims to the Batavian Republic in 1798 and ceased to exist in 1799. The British handed the Cape Colony back to the Batavian Republic in 1803. However, in 1806 the Cape was occupied again by the British after the Battle of Blaauwberg. Thereafter the British controlled the Cape continuously until it became a part of the independent Union of South Africa in 1910. Shortly after the English took over, the two Dutch guns were removed from the Imoff Battery and redeployed in town as signal guns, and the Castle received the latest English 18-pounders. Because the very loud report of the cannons upset residents nearby, the guns were eventually moved to the somewhat more remote Lion Battery on Signal Hill at 33°54′54.6″S 18°24′41.85″E / 33.915167°S 18.4116250°E / -33.915167; 18.4116250 (Lion Battery). The first signal fired from there was on 4 August 1902.

Sailing ships were slow by modern standards and could not store fresh food for long periods, so the provisioning of vessels was one of the major commercial functions at Cape Town in those olden days. The noon Gun in Cape Town can be heard as far as the Parow area if listening closely; Indeed, the city was widely renowned as "The Tavern of the Seas". There were no telephones or telegraphs before the latter half of the 19th century and the sound of the guns travelled much faster than a dispatch rider on a horse. The guns were therefore originally used to announce the arrival of a ship, perhaps requiring provisions for the next leg of its journey, to residents living in the interior. As more modern means of communications and transportation became available, Cape Town discontinued the use of the guns to announce that a ship was in port.

The original guns – 18-pounder, smoothbore muzzle-loaders – are still in use today. The ritual represents one of Cape Town's oldest living traditions. These are the oldest guns in daily use in the world. They fire every day at 12 noon sharp, except Sundays and public holidays, and are maintained by the South African Navy.

In addition to the aforementioned port hailing duties, the guns have had the task of firing a time signal since 1806. According to local tradition, the initial purpose of the gun was to allow ships in port to check the accuracy of their marine chronometers (a precision instrument used aboard ships to help calculate longitude). The gun report might be too inaccurate for ships several kilometers away if they did not correctly compensate for the relatively slow speed of sound. For this reason, ships marked their time by the puff of smoke rather than the sound, and this is one reason the guns are sited high above Cape Town Harbour.^{[citation needed]}