Saint Helena

Overview

Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha is a British Overseas Territory comprising three island groups located thousands of kilometers apart in the South Atlantic Ocean: Saint Helena, Ascension Island, and the Tristan da Cunha archipelago. Saint Helena is the best known of the three, as it was where French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was held in exile and died in 1821, following his defeat by British forces after the Battle of Waterloo. Ascension Island, located about 1,300 kilometers from Saint Helena, is home to British and American military and telecommunications facilities, while Tristan da Cunha, the most distant and isolated part of the territory, is known as the most remote inhabited island in the world, with the nearest landmass lying about 2,400 kilometers away. The official language is English, and the combined population of all three island groups numbers only a few thousand.

Jamestown, the capital of Saint Helena, lies in a steep valley and is home to colonial-era buildings and Jacob's Ladder, a staircase of 699 steps, serving as the island's administrative and commercial center. Longwood House, Napoleon's former residence during his exile on Saint Helena, is now open as a museum and remains owned by the French government under an agreement reached after his death. Ascension Island's volcanic landscape, including Green Mountain, the island's only green, rainforest-like area, artificially planted in the 19th century, showcases the island's distinctive geology and botany. Tristan da Cunha's only settlement, Edinburgh of the Seven Seas, is known as the most remote inhabited settlement in the world, with a population numbering only a few hundred.

The shores of Ascension Island rank among the most significant green sea turtle nesting sites in the world, where females lay thousands of eggs on the sandy beaches each year. Whale shark watching in the waters around Saint Helena has become an increasingly popular tourist activity, as these animals regularly visit the island between December and March. Tristan da Cunha, whose main island sits atop an active volcano, is home to rich seabird life, and the uninhabited Gough Island, part of the territory, has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1995 for its extraordinary endemic species richness. Local cuisine is built around fish and locally grown vegetables, and on Saint Helena, local coffee cultivation (St Helena coffee) is a distinctive, high-value export, regarded as one of the rarest coffee varieties in the world.