The most remote islands where people live. The strangest and most mysterious islands on our planet. Mount Merapi, Indonesia

The Tristan da Cunha and Pitcairn archipelagos and Easter Island are the most remote islands from land. Surprisingly, all of them are inhabited, tourists even come somewhere, despite the difficulties of the road and flight.

Tristan da Cunha

The Tristan da Cunha archipelago (the only island of the same name with the archipelago is inhabited). Located in the southern part of the Atlantic Ocean. Territorially belongs to Great Britain. From the continents, it is approximately equally allocated for more than two thousand kilometers, and the nearest settlement on the island of St. Helena is located 2160 kilometers away. There are no airports here, you can get here on scientific and fishing boats from South Africa (they go once a month).

The only settlement is Edinburgh of the Seven Seas (sometimes called simply "The Village"), where 264 people live (descendants of American, English and Dutch immigrants). It has everything you need for life: a school, a hospital, a police station, a post office, a supermarket, two churches (Catholic and Anglican). Local residents are engaged in agriculture, fishing and working in the public service.

Tristan da Cunha on the map

Easter Island

Easter Island Located in the South Pacific Ocean, 3514 kilometers to the continental coast and 2075 kilometers to Pitcairn Island, the nearest settlement. Territory of Chile. You must have heard a lot about the island thanks to the moai stone giants that can be found on the coast, near volcanoes or settlements. It is still unknown why they were created and how they were transported throughout the island. There is a hypothesis that Easter Island is a fragment of a disappeared continent. One way or another, but this is one of the most mysterious places on our planet.

There are no trees here(presumably they were cut down in the IX-XVII centuries), but there is an airport that daily brings curious tourists from all over the world. Locals fish and serve tourists, this is their main income.

Easter Island on the map

Pitcairn Islands

The Pitcairn Islands (only one of them is inhabited) is a British Overseas Territory. The nearest settlement is 2100 kilometers away. This is the most sparsely populated area in the world. Up to 48 people live here permanently. Basically, these are the descendants of the rebels from the British ship Bounty. Curiously, in the middle of the last century, 300 people lived here, but most of them emigrated to New Zealand.

One way or another, each of the residents is busy with business, torn between the public service (there is a post office, a police station, a grocery store and a bar, everything is as it should be) between the household. Curiously, citizens of the Russian Federation do not need a visa to Pitcairn (so far only two of our compatriots have been here), subject to a number of conditions.

Pitcairn on the map

Modern man is no longer surprised by travel. The borders remain more or less open, and if you have enough money, you can go anywhere. In fact, this is only an appearance. Our planet is so large that only special government expeditions have the opportunity to visit its remote corners. Here, for example, are the 7 islands most remote from civilization, each of which could become a wonderful home for the modern Robinson Crusoe.

Tromelin

Pitcairn

coconut islands

Saint George Island

bear island

Floreana

Macquarie

Even in the 21st century, there are places on the planet where the average wanderer rarely gets to. Lonely mountain peaks, desert landscapes, arctic ice floes or vast ice cliffs are remote places that immediately come to mind. Some of the most remote places on the planet are islands that are still far off the beaten track by air and shipping that are easily forgotten by the rest of the world. This description is about eight of the ten such places that could be mentioned. All islands (or island groups, in some cases) are dependencies or outlying territories of larger countries, and all of these are remote places of interest that continue to fire the imagination of adventurers and explorers.

Kerguelen Islands

The islands are a group of wind islands in the Indian Ocean filled with glaciers, mountains, rocky outcrops and vast plains of trailing grasses and mosses. With an average daily temperature of 2.1 to 8.2°C, the Kerguelen Islands are not the best choice for human settlement, but the islands are a haven for seals, albatrosses, terns and four species of penguins.

Svalbard

With an area of ​​39,044 sq km, Svalbard is the largest island in the Svalbard archipelago and is also Norway's largest island. Given its location about 830 km east of the coast of Greenland and about 950 km north of the coast of Europe, it is not surprising that the island is covered in snow and ice and contains a significant population of polar bears. The main settlement on the island is the city of Longyearbyen, or Longyearbyen, which is less than 3.2 km from the Svalbard World Seed Vault. It is a secure facility built into a mountain designed to protect the seeds of the world's major food producers in the event of a global crisis.

Pitcairn Island

This small volcanic island in the South Pacific - the only inhabited island of the British Overseas Territory of Pitcairn, Henderson, Doucey and the Oeno Islands - is probably best known as the harbor for the mutineers of the British ship Bounty, which docked there in 1790. Today, Pitcairn Island is in the center one of the largest marine reserves in the world, a vast area of ​​the open ocean with an area of ​​830,000 sq. km, larger than the US state of Texas.

New Earth

Two large arctic islands and several small islands make up. The archipelago in the Arctic Ocean between the Barents and Kara Seas is part of the administrative administration of the Arkhangelsk Region and is located along the northwestern coast of Russia. Two main islands: North and South, stretch for 1000 km in a southwest-northeast direction and are separated by a narrow strait Matochkin Shar, which is only 1.6 to 2.4 km. The northeastern tip of the North Island - Cape Flissing - is the easternmost point of Europe. During the Cold War, Novaya Zemlya was the site of over 100 nuclear tests between 1954 and 1990.

Tristan da Cunha

The British Overseas Territory of St. Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha consists of isolated islands. Tristan da Cunha, the southernmost inhabited island in this territory (along with the reserve, consisting of the islands of Inaccessible, Solovyov, Sredny, Gofsky and Stoltenhoffsky), and is located about 2100 km south of St. Helena itself has a round outline, with a coastline of 34 km and a central volcanic hill (altitude 2060 m), which is usually covered with clouds.

Easter Island

Easter Island, Rapa Nui ("Great Rapa") and Te Pito-e-Hyuna ("Navel of the World") are the names of a small triangular volcanic island in the South Pacific. Located 2,088 km from Pitcairn Island and 3,767 km from Santiago. Despite this remoteness, the government administers this group of islands. Easter Island is probably located in the most isolated place on the planet. It is 163 square kilometers. This unique place is famous for its giant stone statues ( moai in the form of a human head with a body truncated approximately at the level of the belt. Their height reaches 20 meters) , of which there are more than 600. The ruins of giant stone platforms with open areas for construction and a ceremonial platform of round stones.

South Georgia

South Georgia Island, which is part of the British Overseas Territory (South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands), is located in the Atlantic part of Antarctica, approximately 1,450 km east of the Falkland Islands and 4,790 km west of Cape Town, South Africa. Although the island and its nearby waters are teeming with wildlife, there are few people on the island. A small number of scientists and support staff maintain the British Antarctic Expedition's stations at Grytviken on King Edward Island and Bird Island, on the northwestern tip of the island, which are the island's only inhabitants. The island served intermittently as a base for whaling and scientific expeditions during the 19th century, but it is most commonly referred to as the last resting place made by British explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, who first crossed South Georgia Island in 1916, to seek help for his ill-fated trans -Antarctic expedition.

Diego Garcia

Diego Garcia is a curious V-shaped coral atoll in the center. The island is the largest and southernmost part of the Chagos Archipelago, which is part of the British Indian Ocean Territory. The island serves as a huge air and naval base for the US and British military due to its strategic location between East Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Australia. While this island does have a lot of wildlife, it could be argued that Diego Garcia's quasi-secret military objective justifies his inclusion on this list. The island was once home to over a thousand islanders who were resettled to Mauritius and the Seychelles from Diego Garcia in 1971 to make way for the militarization of the island. These islanders and their descendants continue to sue for the right to return home.

1. Izu Islands are waiting for tourists in gas masks
South of Tokyo in the Pacific Ocean lies the Izu Archipelago. One of the islands in the chain, Miyakejima, presents visitors with a unique challenge. The joke of nature is that the island has the Oyama volcano, which has woken up 6 times over the past hundred years. Under Miyakejima, magma is constantly seething. Therefore, this island has the highest natural concentration of poisonous sulfurous gases in the air in the world.

In 2000, the island population was evacuated due to the poison content in the local atmosphere going off scale. And in 2005, some daredevils were allowed to return. They run a household on the island, doing normal Japanese business, but they are forced to always have a gas mask ready for use with them. The warning system is automated - as soon as the concentration of sulfur dioxide exceeds the permissible norm, a siren sounds, and everyone puts on masks. Howling can be heard at any time of the day or night. Even if people have a holiday.

Although Miyake looks like a post-apocalyptic place, tourists visit the island with keen curiosity. The fact is that if you don’t sniff the island on purpose and be mentally prepared for the command “Gases!”, Then you can admire the gorgeous nature or, scuba diving, play with dolphins, which are very numerous in local waters. And gas masks of all colors and sizes are sold in tourist shops.

2. Island of floating pigs in the Bahamas
On the uninhabited island of Big Major Cay, there is a community of feral pigs, who are regularly fed by specially hired Bahamians and tourists who sail to admire the natural wonder.

You arrive on the island, rent a room in a small hotel - and they give you a boat. If you swim along the shore, the pigs will surely flounder to the boat and begin to beg for a treat. If the boat runs aground, be prepared for the fact that the piggie will jump into it and brazenly gobble up your lunch.

Piggy locals are friendly, but in the heat they hide in the forest, resorting to the beach in the late afternoon, when the air and water become cooler.

3 Chemical Rabbit Island
Okunoshima, also known as Usagi Shima ("island of rabbits"), is a small piece of land with a dark history. In 1925, Japan signed the Geneva Protocol banning the use of poison gases for military purposes, but the mustard gas plant at Okunoshima continued to operate, producing a total of over 6 kilotons of mustard gas. A secluded place was chosen, there were no satellites flying over the Earth at that time, and the island was erased from official geographical maps.

After the Second World War, the production of poison was eliminated, and the rabbits on which chemical weapons were tested were released into the wild. In the absence of natural predators, the eared bred and became the true owners of Okunoshima. In 1988, the chemical plant was turned into a museum, and tourists flocked to the island. Rabbits meet and see them off, the Japanese do not have a soul in them.

Usagi Shima is also home to Japan's tallest transmission pylon. So local rabbits are not only chemical, but also electrified!

4. Stumbling stone
Tiny, bird-infested isle of Rockall in the North Atlantic and the language does not dare to call it a rock. Its height is 29 meters, length - 31 meters, width - 25 m. Naturally, it is uninhabited and, it would seem, no one needs it. Nevertheless, four European states simultaneously present territorial claims to Rockall - Great Britain, Ireland, Denmark and Iceland. And all because under the rock there are supposedly significant reserves of oil and natural gas - worth $ 160 billion.

In 1904, a Norwegian steamer was wrecked near the rock, 600 people died. Then, until 1955, no one remembered Rockall, but a British military helicopter flew in, and Her Majesty's soldiers hoisted the flag of the United Kingdom on the rock. The British were afraid that a Soviet observation post might appear on the island. And in February 1972, Rockall was officially incorporated into Scotland.

When it became clear that hydrocarbons could be mined in the area of ​​the island, Greenpeace activists landed on Rockall in 1997, declared it an independent country of Waveland and printed 15,000 passports of its citizens. But in 1999, the fighters for the environment ran out of money to maintain the rocky settlement, and the project had to be curtailed. Since then, the very aforementioned states have been squabbling over "the loneliest island of the World Ocean", each of which wants to stop being dependent on Russia or Norway in the issue of oil and gas supplies. The controversy will continue for several more years.

5. The world's furthest island from land

This is Bouvet Island, named after the discoverer and located between South Africa and Antarctica, uninhabited, icy, but having its own ... domain zone ".bv". In the stupid movie "Alien vs. Predator" the action takes place in a hypothetical dungeon exactly under this lonely cold island.

To the nearest people - 1404 miles, meaning the island of Tristan da Cunha, where there is a permanent population (271 people), cars, cafes and the Internet. Only pinnipeds, seabirds and penguins live on Bouvet, and only moss and lichen come across from the flora.

Landing from the sea to Bouvet Island is impossible, only by helicopter. In 1964, a ship abandoned by passengers with stocks of grubs and booze was found nearby. Who followed it and where - remained a mystery.

In 1979, a bright flash was recorded near the island, similar to an atomic explosion. There were talks about some joint nuclear tests between Israel and South Africa, but no one confessed.

Since 1927, Bouvet has been considered the property of Norway and has the status of a nature reserve. Occasionally, scientists arrive on the island to study the migration of whales.

6. Island of poisonous snakes

Not far from the Brazilian coast, south of Sao Paulo, the island of Queimada Grande “splashes” in the ocean. Paradise-looking place is untouched by human activity for a simple and understandable reason - the island is teeming with poisonous snakes. Their population density is estimated at one to five per square meter. Reptiles feed on migratory birds, which, stupidly, land on the island to take a breath. Here it is, the real Snake Island. And not the one in the Black Sea near Odessa.

A meter-long snake is called island botrops or "golden muzzle". 90% of snakebite deaths in Brazil are due to the teeth of bothrops. These creatures are so dangerous that the Brazilian navy does not let anyone near the island of Queimada Grande. Only two or three times in the history of civilization has the ominous snake island been visited by some scientists with the crew of the Discovery Channel.

7. Paradise for monkeys

In 1938, 409 rhesus monkeys were released into the wild on the uninhabited island of Cayo Santiago, off the coast of Puerto Rico. Today, the number of these sacred (though only for Hindus) animals in their closed little world is 940 individuals.

On Rhesus, doctors are experimenting. Cayo Santiago is under the care of the staff of the University of Puerto Rico. By observing distant relatives of people, researchers draw many useful conclusions. In order to get the right to set foot on the island and communicate with animals, a person must be a scientist. However, anyone can rent a boat and watch the macaques from the sea. By the way, these monkeys are not afraid of water and love to swim.

Tired of the noise of the metropolis and have long dreamed of taking a break from the hustle and bustle of the people? We have collected for you a few places where you can fully enjoy privacy. If, of course, dare. Each of these islands, thousands of kilometers away from the “mainland”, not only has its own amazing history, but also hides many mysteries and secrets, which we invite you to discover.

Chile's Easter Island is rightfully considered one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world: the nearest mainland (South America) is almost 4,000 km from here. Local residents in the amount of about 5,000 people call the island Rapa Nui, but for the rest of the world it was discovered only in 1722 by the Dutchman Roggeven, who landed on the shore on Easter Sunday, which gave this place such an unusual name.

But the whole world knows this place not at all because of its remoteness or name, but because of the huge moai statues placed along the coast and looking inland. Who and why created 500-year-old idols pressed from volcanic ash still remains a mystery. The native Polynesians believe that they contain the power of their ancestors, and the rest do not stop arguing about the history of the appearance of monumental statues. Some even believe that Easter Island is a continent eluding man, on which an unknown civilization developed over the course of millennia, which later disappeared into the depths of the ocean.

True, scientists do not share this version and argue that before the island was not much larger than it is now. They also say that it was once covered with dense forest. Today, there are almost no trees on the island, apparently, they were actively used in the construction of sledges and scaffolding for transporting huge statues.

How to get there: Once the journey to the island took many weeks, now the capital and the only city of Hanga Roa has an airport that receives scientists and tourists from Chile's capital, Santiago.

Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha

All three of these islands constitute a British Overseas Territory and are located in the South Atlantic, west of the African coast. The Tristan da Cunha archipelago, along with Easter Island, is the most remote place on earth: from here to the coast of Africa - almost three thousand km, to South America - more than three thousand km, to the nearest island - St. Helena - a little more than two thousand . Tristan da Cunha is the only island in the archipelago with a permanent population: 284 people live here.

However, the island of St. Helena is rightfully considered the most famous island of the archipelago, because it was on this piece of land lost in the ocean that Napoleon was exiled, where he spent his last five and a half years of his life.

The origin of the name of the island is not known for certain. According to one version, the story practically repeats the history of the origin of the name of Easter Island: the Portuguese navigator João da Nova discovered the island on St. Helena's Day (May 21, 1502). However, the Portuguese did not settle in it, and in 1659 the first English garrison was stationed here, and the island began to belong to the British crown. However, the two main attractions of St. Helena - Longwood House, where Napoleon lived, and his grave (though empty, the remains were transferred to Paris in 1840) - are found in the possession of France.

Looking at the brown-green rocks that cover the island, and the endless ocean beating against its shore, you involuntarily recall the words of the great commander: "There is nothing here but time."

How to get there: The islands are not connected by regular passenger flights to the mainland. However, the island can be reached by fishing boats and science ships. Fishing boats from South Africa go to the island of Tristan da Cunha once a month, they are equipped with seats for passengers. Saint Helena can be reached by the St Helena mail ship, which takes 5 days from Cape Town.

Photo: Pauline and John Grimshaw

Almost completely covered with ice and blown from all sides by strong winds, Bouvet Island is not only one of the islands most lost in the waters of the ocean, but also one of the most inhospitable of them.

From here to the nearest mainland - more than 1700 km, and this mainland is Antarctica.

In the middle of 1927, the Norwegians were able to land on the island (and this is not so easy to do) and stayed there for a whole month. Actually, this is probably why (or maybe because no one needs this godforsaken island anymore) Bouvet Island belongs to Norway today. 50 years after the landing of brave polar explorers, the island received the status of a reserve. However, even before it was visited extremely rarely and mainly by scientists who study the migration of whales and observe other living creatures: sea leopards, crabeaters, seals and penguins.

Named after its discoverer, the French navigator Bouvet, this island has its own ... domain zone.bv, and the hypothetical dungeon under it became the main setting for the stupid movie “Alien vs. Predator”.

How to get there: You can get to the island during the Antarctic cruise of Ocean Adventures: the ship makes a two-week stop at the island.

This island, which has gained worldwide fame thanks to the notorious novel, is located in the Juan Fernandez archipelago, 674 km from Chile. Once this rocky Pacific island was called Mass-a-Thier and was a favorite place for pirates, but then, at the beginning of the 17th century, the sailor Alexander Selkirk, who became the prototype of the famous Robinson Cruz, turned up here. After the release of Defoe's novel, he literally woke up famous, and in the 20th century, his place of refuge, the island of Mass-a-Thiera, was renamed the island of Robinson Cruz, and the neighboring small island began to bear the name of Alexander himself.

Today this island is inhabited. Friendly and few locals are engaged in catching huge lobsters and showing the main attractions of the island to rare tourists. Fans of the novel will be led to see the cave in which Selkirk lived, the rest will be able to admire the unique nature of this place: there are 140 endemic species of plants and animals on the island. That is, those that are not found anywhere else. There is also Cumberland Bay, where an English squadron shot down a German light cruiser during the First World War: now this place is popular among divers. There are also penguins, hummingbirds, seals and turtles, and half-wild goats roam the hills, which once helped Selkirk survive.

How to get there: You can get to Robinson Crusoe Island by a small plane from Santiago (flights are more or less regular, it takes three hours to fly) or by ship from Valparaiso. This will take three days.

This island is located in the southern part of the Indian Ocean and is equidistant from the coasts of three continents at once: Australia, Africa and Antarctica. This piece of land was given its name, identical to the name of the Dutch capital, in honor not of the city, but of the ship from which the Dutchman Antonio van Diemen descended on its shore. The ship was called "New Amsterdam", but subsequently the word "new" gradually disappeared from the maps. The island is part of the French Southern and Antarctic Territories and therefore belongs to France.

The island has a fairly regular rounded shape and a mountainous terrain with gentle slopes. The coastline, in the absence of any sharp bends, has neither bays nor bays, and the coast is dotted with rocks and reefs, some of which are underwater. There is not much local population here: only from 20 to 40 people, depending on the season. They all live in the only island settlement - the village of Martin-de-Viviers, and in one way or another belong to the number of employees of the workstation. Someone studies flora and fauna, collects weather data, someone cooks dinner for everyone, and someone paints the walls of houses. There is not much entertainment here: except that you can ride bicycles or do photo hunting for penguins, seals and the Amsterdam albatross. With such a small number of people living on the island, the locals are already very happy with tourists. Although tourism on the island (due to the great distance from the continents and the lack of an airport or airfield) is poorly developed, true daredevils still manage to get to this godforsaken place.