Saint Helena

   

For alternate uses, see Saint Helena (disambiguation).

Saint Helena is an island in the Atlantic Ocean 2,800 km off the west coast of Africa belonging to the United Kingdom. It is also the name of this island together with Ascension, Gough Island, Inaccessible Island, Nightingale Island, and Tristan da Cunha Island.


Saint Helena
Flag of Saint Helena
coat of arms
(In Detail) (Full size)
National motto: ?
Image:LocationSaintHelena.png
Official languageEnglish
Political status Overseas territory of the UK
Capital Jamestown
Governor and
Commander-in-Chief
David Hollamby
Area 410 km²
Population


 - Total (2003 E)
 - Density


7,367
18/km²
Currency Saint Helenian pound (SHP) at parity with the UK Pound Sterling (GBP)
Time zone UTC +0
National anthem God Save the Queen, My St. Helena Island (unofficial)
Internet TLD .sh
Calling Code 290


The island served as a strategic island for ships on their way to the Indian Ocean before the Suez Canal was built.

St. Helena has a small population that remains loyal to Britain. However, the island's diminutive size and geopolitical insignificance has led many Islanders to accuse the British government of ignoring the island. The island's economy was a one crop economy for many years, but is now very weak, and is almost entirely sustained solely on aid from London.

Napoleon Bonaparte spent the last part of his life in exile on St. Helena, and the St. Helena tourist industry is heavily based around the promotion of this particular aspect of the island's history. Two sites where Napoleon lived and the valley where he was buried are French territory.

Prominent Anglo-Boer War prisoners, including General Piet Cronje were also detained on St. Helena.

Map of Saint Helena


External links


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Other areas: Canary Islands | Mayotte | Réunion | Saint Helena | Western Sahara





ca:Santa Helena de:Sankt Helena fr:Île Sainte-Hélène he:סנט הלנה nl:Sint Helena (eiland) ja:セントヘレナ no:St. Helena pl:Święta Helena (kolonia) pt:Santa Helena sl:Sveta Helena sv:Sankt Helena zh-cn:圣赫勒拿岛

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This page has been accessed 1495 times. This page was last modified 16:55, 11 Nov 2004. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License (see Copyrights for details).