Mauritius ( in
french l'Ile Maurice) is located in the south-west of the Indian Ocean, to some 800km
in the east of the large island Madagascar and to 220 km with the east of island La
Reunion .
Thus, from west, island La Reunion, Mauritius ( and his small islands of Agalega,
Saint-Brandon,
Cargados Caraos and Chagos Archipelago) just as Rodrigues Island form the archipelago
of Mascareignes name of the Portuguese navigator Pedro Mascarenhas who explored them. All the islands of Mascareignes belong to
the Republic of Mauritius, except the Island of La Reunion
which constitues a French department. However, Mauritius is much less far away from La
Reunion
( 200 km) that of the island of Rodrigues ( 600 km). The surface of the republic of
Mauritius
is of 1865 km2, and it reaches a total of 2040 km2 by including its dependance.
To 394 km in the North-East of
Mauritius are Cargados Carajos which gather 22 islands.
One of them, the Saint-Brandon island, has a hospital and a weather station; only some
fishermen
engaged by a company Mauritian remain there periodically. Further, are profiled the
Agalega islands
whose population is of 300 inhabitants and, in the south of Maldives, Diego Garcia
sheltering
an American military base, but whose sovereignty is claimed by the government Mauritian.
All in the north of the archipel
is l'ilot Tromelin who is remained under French control. Republic
of Mauritius formerly French colony ( 1715-1810) then british, is an independant State
since 1968 .
The near total of the inhabitants of this state live the the island of Mauritius : only 35
000 inhabitants
in the Island of Rodrigues which covers a hundred square kilometers; the other small
islands are not
regulary inhabited. Port-Louis ( the capital) , named thus in remembering french king
LOUIS XV, account nearly 300 000 inhabitants, is more than 40 % of the total population of
Mauritius.
The principal cities remain
Port-Louis, the Grande-Baie, Cure-Pipe, Ile-aux-cerfs, Mahebourg,
Trou-aux-cers and Terre-de-couleurs .
For any further informations,
please send a mail to :
mauritius_resort@hotmail.com |
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