St Helena is an Island and British colony in the South Atlantic Ocean, 1,200 miles (1,950 km) west of the southwestern coast of Africa. St. Helena has an area of 47 square miles (122 square km), an extreme length southwest-northeast) of 10.5 miles (16 km), and an extreme breadth of 6.5 miles (10 km). The capital and port is Jamestown. The island of Ascension and the island group of Tristan da Cunha are dependencies of St. Helena.
| This map is in Macromedia Flash format. You can zoom in on the map by right clicking on it when viewing the Flash image, or it will be seen as a PNG image if you don't have the plugin. The map is courtesy of Jean-Pierre Langer of Monaco: Jean-Pierre has spent a considerable amount of time translating Admiralty and other charts into Adobe .PDF format, and I am indebted to him for his assistance. |
St Helena is the deeply eroded summit of a composite volcano rising from the sea floor at a depth of 4,224 m. The area of the island is 122 km 2 (47 miles 2), with the highest point, Diana's Peak reaching 823 m above sea level. The sub-surface dimensions of the volcano are huge - it has a base of around 130 km in diameter and occupies a volume some twenty times that of Mount Etna. St Helena is extremely remote, and, with Ascension Island, form the only land in 3% of the earth's surface.
The island is 16 km long and 10 km wide, elongated in a NE/SW direction. A high central ridge dominates the topography, and from it radiate deeply incised valleys with depths up to 300 m. Thompson's, Fisher's, Sharks, Lemon and Deep Valleys are particularly spectacular, but all except James Valley (where Jamestown is located) are usually dry. There are few areas of level ground, with Deadwood (where Boer War prisoners were housed at the turn of the century) and Longwood Plains in the interior, and Prosperous Bay Plain in the arid north-east.
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Francis Plain, one of the few areas of flat ground on St Helena |
The coastline of St Helena is spectacular, with cliffs up to 300 m high. They are relatively barren, with low scrub and cactus. These forbidding cliffs, coupled with an unpredictable Atlantic swell (worse on the south side of the island) mean that there are very few landing places. As one heads inland, the terrain becomes vegetated: sadly, there are still large tracts of land which were devastated by the goats and pigs brought in by early settlers. These animals ran wild and multiplied, and despite an attempt to exterminate the goats in 1731, they soon recovered and continued to ravage the vegetation.
The scenery of St Helena can vary rapidly within a small area: there are sudden contrasts beteen bare slopes and lush pastrures, plains and sea cliffs and flax plantations and barren ground. The cliffs can be very dangerous, but inland there are some spectacular and moderateley easy walks. Indeed, the sudden variations in topography can often distort one's perception of the island.
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Bamboo Hedges Farm, with Lot and Lot's Wife (Basaltic columns) in the background |
All roads inland from Jamestown lead uphill, and are narrow, demanding careful driving. There are 52 miles of surfaced roads, covering most of the island: the speed limit is 30 MPH, but this is difficult to exceed in places. Many of the hills are long and steep, and it is difficult to get into high gear. There are 1,200 motor vehicles, and petrol (gasoline) is relatively expensive.
Economic Geography
The island contains little in the way of mineral resources: Hirst (1951) surveyed the island for Manganese and Phosphate deposits, and although they exist in many locations, they are not present in commercial quantities. The only quarrying is for hardcore on Donkey Plain and the extraction of Calcareous Sands from deposits above Potato Bay
