Top 10 facts about Saint Helena

Napoleon had high praise for the coffee on Saint Helena

Two hundred years ago today, on October 15, 1815, Napoleon arrived on the island of Saint Helena where he was exiled for the rest of his life.

1. Saint Helena is in the South Atlantic, 2,500 miles east of Brazil, 1,200 miles west of Africa. It covers an area of just 47 square miles.

2. The Portuguese discovered Saint Helena in 1502 but from 1676 it was governed by the British East India Company.

3. Saint Helena is now Britain’s second oldest remaining Overseas Territory, after Bermuda.

4. The comet discoverer Edmond Halley set up an observatory on Saint Helena in 1676.

5. Napoleon had high praise for the coffee on Saint Helena.

6. Charles Darwin had a five-day stopover on Saint Helena when sailing on The Beagle in 1836…



Saint Helena is now Britain’s second oldest remaining Overseas Territory



7. …and he described the island as “a curious little world within itself”.

The first ever aircraft landing on Saint Helena was made exactly one month ago at the island’s newly built airport on September 15, 2015

 

8. The first ever aircraft landing on Saint Helena was made exactly one month ago at the island’s newly built airport on September 15, 2015.

9. The island is named after St Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine the Great and alleged discovered of the True Cross.

10. St Helena is the only place on earth where the mating of whale sharks has been seen by humans.

 

Saint Helena is in the South Atlantic, 2,500 miles east of Brazil