Amirante Islands
The Amirante Islands are a group of coral islands and atolls that belong to the Outer Islands of the Seychelles.
They stretch about 155 km from the African Banks in the north to Desnœufs in the south, all on the shallow Amirantes Bank, except the main island Île Desroches in the east, and submerged Lady Denison-Pender Shoal at the northern end. 90 km south of the Amirante Islands is Alphonse Group, the closest group of islands, which are sometimes considered part of the Amirantes.
History
The Amirantes were discovered by Vasco da Gama on his second voyage of exploration in 1503, and later named "Ilhas do Almirante". Previous knowledge of the islands by Arab and Indian traders is possible. The islands were claimed by Sieur Michel Blin for France in 1802. By the Treaty of Paris, the islands were passed officially to the British, as a part of Mauritius. In 1909, the Seychelles became a separate colony, thereby including the Amirantes. On November 8, 1965, the United Kingdom split Île Desroches from the Seychelles to become part of the newly created British Indian Ocean Territory. The purpose was to allow the construction of a military base for the mutual benefit of the United Kingdom and the United States. On June 23, 1976, Île Desroches was returned to the Seychelles as a result of it attaining independence.The total land area is 11.5 km2. The total population is 300.
The biggest concentrations are the Prison 2 km from Marie Louise village and the Collins group construction camp which is 2 km from the capital village of Desroches village.
Islands
There are eight single islands, plus three atolls with a total of 18 islets. In addition to these 11 units, the following table also has entries for a reef and a shoal without islets, for the sake of completeness. The five largest ones in area are inhabited. The different island types are marked by different background colours in the table.| Island/Atoll/Reef | type | Area | Pop. est. | Location | |
| 1 | Lady Denison-Pender | submerged shoal | - | - | |
| 2 | African Banks | sand cay | 0.04 | - | |
| 3 | Remire Reef | drying reef | - | - | |
| 4 | Remire | uplifted sand cay | 0.27 | 6 | |
| 5 | D'Arros | sand cay | 1.71 | 42 | |
| 6 | St. Joseph | atoll | 1.63 | 0 | |
| 7 | Bertaut | sand cay | 0.002 | - | |
| 8 | Desroches | atoll | 4.02 | 100 | |
| 9 | Poivre | atoll | 2.78 | 10 | |
| 10 | Étoile | sand cay | 0.05 | - | |
| 11 | Boudeuse | sand cay | 0.03 | - | |
| 12 | Marie Louise | uplifted sand cay | 0.556 | 150 | |
| 13 | Desnœufs | uplifted sand cay | 0.45 | - | |
| Amirante Islands | island chain | 11.5 | 300 | 04°49' to 06°14'S, 52°50° to 53°41'E |