Republic of Seychelles

Although well developed for visitors, the Indian Ocean tropical island archipelago of Seychelles features a large variety of carefully preserved plants, animals, sea life, beaches and reefs. Almost half the land area of the islands is designated as protected Parks and Nature Reserves, and many of the islands and atolls are designated as protected marine sanctuaries.

Situated 1,800 km/1,116 mi east of the Kenyan coast and four degrees south of the equator, the Seychelles archipelago consists of 115 islands, (of which 100 are named), including 41 granitic islands (the only mid-ocean granitic islands in the world) and 75 coralline islands. They are not volcanic in origin, but are the peaks of a vast underwater plateau.

The country is spread out over 1,300,000sq.km/806,000sq.mi, of which only 445sq.km/276sq.mi is land. Travel between the islands is accomplished mostly by air. The population is around 80,000 of whom 72,000 live on the main island of Mahé.

The average day has 12 hours of sunlight, and the mean maximum temperature is a warm and humid 29° although August and September are relatively cool and dry. There are two monsoon seasons and the most serious rainfall occurs in December and January, but the islands lie outside the cyclone belt.

The Seychelles were first noted by Arab and Persian sailors around the 9th C and the first European to explore the archipelago was Vasco de Gama, who claimed it for Portugal in 1502. France took possession in 1756, but ceded the islands to Britain following the Napoleonic Wars. English and French are the two official languages, with Seselwa Creole spoken as well. Independence was achieved in 1976 and a multi-party democracy has existed since 1991.