The granite heart of the Seychelles — Anse Intendance waves, Victoria's Creole market, ladob dessert, and coco de mer palms above the clouds
Mahé is the largest of the 115 Seychelles islands (158 km², population 90,000) and the seat of government, capital city (Victoria — the smallest national capital in Africa), and the island that receives the majority of the Seychelles' 300,000 annual visitors. The island's granite peaks (Morne Seychellois, 905m, the highest point in the Seychelles, covered in cloud forest) give it a physical drama unlike the low coral atolls of the outer Seychelles — the interior is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve of endemic species including the Seychelles paradise flycatcher, the Seychelles black parrot (national…
Mahé was uninhabited at European contact — the Seychelles had no indigenous population. The French established the first permanent settlement in 1770 with 15 colonists and 7 enslaved Africans from Madagascar and Mozambique; the island was named after Bertrand-François Mahé de la Bourdonnais, the French governor of Mauritius. Britain took the islands in 1814; emancipation came in 1835. The islands became independent in 1976 and experienced a coup d'état in 1977 that brought France-Albert René to power in a one-party state until multiparty elections were introduced in 1992. The Seychelles is no…