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Saint Helena
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Saint Helena
Saint Helena (/ˌsɛnt (h)ɪˈliːnə, ˌsɪnt-, sənt-/, US: /ˌseɪnt-/; US: /ˌseɪnt ˈhɛlənə/ ) is a volcanic and tropical island, located in the South Atlantic Ocean, some 1,874 km (1,165 miles) west of the mainland of the continent of Africa, with the Southern African nations of Angola and Namibia on its southeastern coast being the closest nations geographically. The island is around 1,950 km (1,210 mi) west of the coast of southwestern Angola, and 4,000 km (2,500 mi) east of the major seaport city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in South America. It is one of the three constituent parts of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, a British overseas territory.
Saint Helena measures about 16 by 8 km (10 by 5 mi) and had a population of 4,439 in the 2021 census. It was named after Saint Helena (AD c.246/248–330), the mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine I the Great. (A.D 272–337, reigned 306–337), of the ancient Roman Empire. It is one of the most remote major islands in the world and was uninhabited until the 16th century, when it was discovered by the Portuguese explorers/traders en route southward around the continent of Africa, then east across the Indian Ocean to the Indian subcontinent (India) of South Asia in 1502. For about the next four centuries, the island was an important stopover for ships between Europe and Asia sailing around the African continent and its southern Cape of Good Hope, before the opening of the shortcut Suez Canal in 1869, in Egypt between the Mediterranean and Red Seas. Saint Helena is the United Kingdom's second-oldest overseas territory of the old British Empire, after the islands of Bermuda, off the southeast coast of North America.
The primary method of reaching Saint Helena is by its remote airport. It is also served by cargo ships.
Saint Helena is known for being the site of the second period of exile of Napoleon Bonaparte, from his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 until his death there six years later.
According to long-established tradition, the island was sighted on 21 May 1502 by the four ships of the 3rd Portuguese Armada, commanded by João da Nova, a Galician navigator in the service of Portugal, during his return voyage to Lisbon, who named it Santa Helena after Saint Helena of Constantinople. This tradition was reviewed by a 2022 paper which concluded that the Portuguese chronicles published at least fifty years after the sighting are the sole primary source for the discovery. Although contradictory in describing other events, these chronicles almost unanimously claim that João da Nova found Saint Helena sometime in 1502, although none of them gives a precise date.
However, there are several reasons to doubt that da Nova made this discovery:
The 2022 paper also reviews cartographic evidence that Saint Helena and Ascension were known to the Spanish in 1500, before either João da Nova or Estêvão da Gama sailed for India. The suggestion that da Nova discovered Tristan da Cunha and named it Saint Helena is discounted.
A 2015 paper notes that 21 May is the feast day of St Helena in the Eastern Orthodox and most Protestant churches, but the Roman Catholic one is in August, and the day and the month were first quoted in 1596 by Jan Huyghen van Linschoten, who was probably mistaken, because the island was discovered several decades before the Reformation and the start of Linschoten's Protestant faith. An alternative discovery date of 3 May is suggested as being historically more credible; it is the Catholic feast day of the finding of the True Cross by Saint Helena in Jerusalem, and cited by Odoardo Duarte Lopes and Sir Thomas Herbert.
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Saint Helena AI simulator
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Saint Helena
Saint Helena (/ˌsɛnt (h)ɪˈliːnə, ˌsɪnt-, sənt-/, US: /ˌseɪnt-/; US: /ˌseɪnt ˈhɛlənə/ ) is a volcanic and tropical island, located in the South Atlantic Ocean, some 1,874 km (1,165 miles) west of the mainland of the continent of Africa, with the Southern African nations of Angola and Namibia on its southeastern coast being the closest nations geographically. The island is around 1,950 km (1,210 mi) west of the coast of southwestern Angola, and 4,000 km (2,500 mi) east of the major seaport city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in South America. It is one of the three constituent parts of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, a British overseas territory.
Saint Helena measures about 16 by 8 km (10 by 5 mi) and had a population of 4,439 in the 2021 census. It was named after Saint Helena (AD c.246/248–330), the mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine I the Great. (A.D 272–337, reigned 306–337), of the ancient Roman Empire. It is one of the most remote major islands in the world and was uninhabited until the 16th century, when it was discovered by the Portuguese explorers/traders en route southward around the continent of Africa, then east across the Indian Ocean to the Indian subcontinent (India) of South Asia in 1502. For about the next four centuries, the island was an important stopover for ships between Europe and Asia sailing around the African continent and its southern Cape of Good Hope, before the opening of the shortcut Suez Canal in 1869, in Egypt between the Mediterranean and Red Seas. Saint Helena is the United Kingdom's second-oldest overseas territory of the old British Empire, after the islands of Bermuda, off the southeast coast of North America.
The primary method of reaching Saint Helena is by its remote airport. It is also served by cargo ships.
Saint Helena is known for being the site of the second period of exile of Napoleon Bonaparte, from his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 until his death there six years later.
According to long-established tradition, the island was sighted on 21 May 1502 by the four ships of the 3rd Portuguese Armada, commanded by João da Nova, a Galician navigator in the service of Portugal, during his return voyage to Lisbon, who named it Santa Helena after Saint Helena of Constantinople. This tradition was reviewed by a 2022 paper which concluded that the Portuguese chronicles published at least fifty years after the sighting are the sole primary source for the discovery. Although contradictory in describing other events, these chronicles almost unanimously claim that João da Nova found Saint Helena sometime in 1502, although none of them gives a precise date.
However, there are several reasons to doubt that da Nova made this discovery:
The 2022 paper also reviews cartographic evidence that Saint Helena and Ascension were known to the Spanish in 1500, before either João da Nova or Estêvão da Gama sailed for India. The suggestion that da Nova discovered Tristan da Cunha and named it Saint Helena is discounted.
A 2015 paper notes that 21 May is the feast day of St Helena in the Eastern Orthodox and most Protestant churches, but the Roman Catholic one is in August, and the day and the month were first quoted in 1596 by Jan Huyghen van Linschoten, who was probably mistaken, because the island was discovered several decades before the Reformation and the start of Linschoten's Protestant faith. An alternative discovery date of 3 May is suggested as being historically more credible; it is the Catholic feast day of the finding of the True Cross by Saint Helena in Jerusalem, and cited by Odoardo Duarte Lopes and Sir Thomas Herbert.
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