Silhouette Island lies northwest of Mahé in the

Seychelles Seychelles (, ; ), officially the Republic of Seychelles (; Seychellois Creole: ), is an island country and archipelagic state consisting of 155 islands (as per the Constitution) in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city, Victoria, ...

. It is the third largest granitic island in the Seychelles. It has an area of 20.1 km² and has a population of 200, mostly workers on the island. The main settlement is La Passe, where ''

Hilton Hotel Hilton Hotels & Resorts (formerly known as Hilton Hotels) is a global brand of full-service hotels and resorts and the flagship brand of American multinational hospitality company Hilton Worldwide. The original company was founded by Conrad Hi ...

'' is located. The name Silhouette was given after

Étienne de Silhouette Étienne de Silhouette (5 July 1709 – 20 January 1767) was a French Ancien Régime Controller-General of Finances under Louis XV. Life Sometimes said to be akin to the next Niccolò Machiavelli, he was born at Limoges where his father Chevalie ...

(1709-1767), the French minister of finances under

Louis XV Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reached maturity (then defi ...

Geography

The island is mountainous with five peaks over in elevation; Mont Dauban , Mont-Pot-a-Eau , Gratte Fesse , Mont Corgat and Mont Cocos Marrons . As such, it has some of the most dramatic scenery of the islands. Though superficially similar to neighbouring islands, much of Silhouette is made up of younger

syenite Syenite is a coarse-grained intrusive igneous rock with a general composition similar to that of granite, but deficient in quartz, which, if present at all, occurs in relatively small concentrations (< 5%). It is considered a English East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South Asia and Southeast A ...

vessel, the ''Ascension'', were the first humans known to step ashore on Silhouette, in 1609. The island was visited by Charles Oger, who took possession of it in the name of the King of France on 28 January 1771. Graves discovered at Anse Lascars were thought to be evidence of earlier visitors, possibly of Arabic origin (hence the name "Lascars", which is the local term for an Arab). However, when bones from the graves were taken for investigation, they were dated to around 1800, around the time of the first settlement. Also, there is a legend in the Seychelles that the corsair Jean-François Hodoul buried his treasure on Silhouette Island. From the mid-19th century until 1960, the island was owned by the Dauban family, who were originally from France but had settled in Mauritius in 1830. The Dauban family were responsible for developing extensive plantations on Silhouette. There is a mausoleum built in the style of La Madeleine in Paris,

Église de la Madeleine The Church of Sainte-Marie-Madeleine (, ), or less formally, La Madeleine (), is a Catholic parish church on Place de la Madeleine in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. It was planned by Louis XV as the focal point of the new Rue Royal, leading t ...

, where a number of the family members are buried, including Auguste Dauban, whose business ventures were so extensive he earned the nickname "the

Rothschild Rothschild () is a name derived from the German ''zum rothen Schild'' (with the old spelling "th"), meaning "to the red shield", in reference to the houses where these family members lived or had lived. At the time, houses were designated by signs ...

of the Indian Ocean". The Dauban era came to an end when Henri Dauban sold the island to a French group. Following the purchase of the island by the

government in 1983, a small hotel was constructed. This was later replaced by the larger Labriz Resort which was then bought by the Hilton hotel group. The Dauban plantation house has recently been restored, and now is a museum which contains many original photos of the Dauban family.

Flora and fauna

Silhouette Island is one of the richest biodiversity points in the western Indian Ocean with many endemic and threatened plant and animal species. Among the most important is the Critically Endangered

Seychelles sheath-tailed bat The Seychelles sheath-tailed bat (''Coleura seychellensis'') is a sac-winged bat found in the central granitic islands of the Seychelles. They are nocturnal insectivores that roost communally in caves. The species was previously abundant acros ...

. Two roosting caves have been located, part of a single system of passages in a boulder field. Another roost complex was discovered in 2005 and 32 bats recorded. Most of the 75 or so endemic plants of the granitic islands of Seychelles are found on Silhouette, some of them unique to the island. One of the rarest of these is the Critically Endangered '' Impatiens gordonii'', a white-flowered relative of the well-known garden plant Busy Lizzie, only ever recorded on Mahe and Silhouette. In 1987 the surrounding waters were declared a Marine National Park. In 2010, Silhouette National Park was created protecting 93 percent of the landmass. The island is also an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

and is considered by the Alliance for Zero Extinction to be an important site for the survival of Critically Endangered species. Conservation of the island is managed by the

Island Conservation Society The Island Conservation Society (ICS) was registered as an NGO in Seychelles on 25 March 2001. The Head Office, known as The Island Conservation Centre, is situated at Pointe Larue, Mahé. ICS focuses on the protection and rehabilitation of the sma ...

Species of interest

Seychelles giant tortoise The Seychelles giant tortoise (''Aldabrachelys gigantea hololissa''), also known as the Seychelles domed giant tortoise, is a tortoise subspecies in the genus ''Aldabrachelys''. It inhabited the large central granitic Seychelles islands, but was ...

*'' Astropanax procumbens'' *

Seychelles kestrel The Seychelles kestrel (''Falco araeus'') is a small bird of prey belonging to the genus '' Falco'' in the falcon family, Falconidae. It is endemic to the Seychelles Islands where it is the only breeding bird of prey. It is known in Seychellois Cr ...

* Seychelles blue pigeon *'' Lychas braueri''

Gallery

Primary School House on Silhouette Island

File:Silhouette_roheline.png, Map 1 File:Silhouette_Island,_Seychelles_(6291528600).jpg, The Beach at Silhouette Island File:Silhouette_Island,_Seychelles_(6291538872).jpg, The Beach at Silhouette Island File:Seychellen_silhouette_anse_la_passe.jpg, Beach near La Passe, Silhouette

References

External links

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Silhouette island information
{{DEFAULTSORT:Silhouette, Seychelles Important Bird Areas of Seychelles Islands of La Digue and Inner Islands Somali Sea