Dzaoudzi is a commune in the French

overseas department The overseas departments and regions of France (french: départements et régions d'outre-mer, ; ''DROM'') are departments of France that are outside metropolitan France, the European part of France. They have exactly the same status as mainlan ...

Mayotte Mayotte (; french: Mayotte, ; Shimaore: ''Maore'', ; Kibushi: ''Maori'', ), officially the Department of Mayotte (french: Département de Mayotte), is an overseas department and region and single territorial collectivity of France. It is loca ...

, in the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by ...

. The commune of Dzaoudzi (sometimes called Dzaoudzi-Labattoir), made up of the twin towns of Dzaoudzi and Labattoir, is located on the small island of Petite-Terre (or Pamanzi). It was previously the capital of Mayotte, but the capital was relocated in 1977 to

Mamoudzou Mamoudzou (; ''Momojou'') is the capital of Mayotte, a French overseas region and department in the Indian Ocean. Mamoudzou is the most populated commune (municipality) of Mayotte. It is located on Grande-Terre (or Maoré), the main island of ...

, on the island of

Grande-Terre Grande-Terre Island (french: île de Grande-Terre / île de la Grande-Terre; gcf, label= Antillean Creole, Gwantè) is the name of the eastern-half of Guadeloupe proper, in the Lesser Antilles. It is separated from the other half of Guadeloupe ...

(Maore), the main island of Mayotte. The Foreign Legion Detachment in Mayotte has been based in DzaoudziMinistry of Defense
(in French). since 1973.

Geography

The town of Dzaoudzi is located on a rocky outcropping which was once a separate islet. It is now linked to Pamanzi Island and the rest of Dzaoudzi Commune by the ''Boulevard des Crabes'', a road constructed atop an artificial dike.

Climate

Dzaoudzi features a tropical wet and dry climate under the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, nota ...

. The

wet season The wet season (sometimes called the Rainy season) is the time of year when most of a region's average annual rainfall occurs. It is the time of year where the majority of a country's or region's annual precipitation occurs. Generally, the sea ...

spans from December through April while the

dry season The dry season is a yearly period of low rainfall, especially in the tropics. The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which moves from the northern to the southern tropics and back over the course of the year. The ...

covers the remaining seven months. Dzaoudzi is slightly cooler during the peak of its dry season with average temperatures hovering around during its cooler period. Average temperatures are during its warmest period. The town sees roughly of precipitation annually.

Demographics

The commune is home to 17,831 (Census 2017), the majority of whom live in the town of Labattoir.

Transportation

A system of ferry barges operated by the ''Société des Transports Maritimes'' link Dzaoudzi to the island of Grande-Terre. The international airport for Mayotte is located on Pamanzi Island in the neighboring commune of Pamandzi.

References

External links