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Geography of Les Saintes

Îles des Saintes
Les Saintes
Anthem: La Marseillaise
Location of Îles des Saintes (part of Guadeloupe, circled) in the Lesser Antilles.
Location of Îles des Saintes (part of Guadeloupe, circled) in the Lesser Antilles.
Location of Les Saintes
Capital Fond-du-Curé
Largest city Petite-Anse
Official languages French
Local languages
Ethnic groups
Government Dependent territory
François Hollande
• Prefect
Amaury de Saint-Quentin
Hilaire Brudey
• Deputy
Victorin Lurel
• Senator
Félix Pierre Desplan
Part of the overseas department of Guadeloupe
• French colony
1648
• English occupation
1759
• Restitution to France
10 February 1763
• Second English occupation
1782
• Second restitution to France
30 May 1814a
19 March 1946
Area
• Total
12.8 km2 (4.9 sq mi) (not ranked)
• Water (%)
negligible
Population
• 2008 census
3,418
• Density
267/km2 (691.5/sq mi)
Currency Euro () (EUR)
Time zone AST (UTC-4)
Calling code +590b
Internet TLD
  1. Not effective until 1816.
  2. Shared with Guadeloupe.

The Îles des Saintes ("Islands of the Saints"), also known as Les Saintes, is a small archipelago of the French Antilles located to the south of Basse-Terre Island, west of Marie-Galante and north of Dominica. It is a dependency of Guadeloupe, which, in turn, is an overseas department and region of France.

Les Saintes is a volcanic archipelago fully encircled by shallow reefs. It arose from the recent volcanic belt of the Lesser Antilles from the Pliocene Epoch. It is composed of rocks appeared on the Tertiary age between (4.7 to 2 million years ago). By origin, it was a unique island that the tectonic and volcanic earthquakes separate to create an archipelago due to the subduction zone between the South American plate, the North American plate and the Caribbean plate.

Les Saintes is composed of two very mountainous inhabited islands, Terre-de-Haut Island and Terre-de-Bas Island, with seven other uninhabited îslets:

The total surface is 12.8 km2 (4.9 sq mi). The archipelago has approximately 22 km (14 mi) of coast and its highest hill, Chameau ("Camel"), reaches about 309 metres (1,014 ft).

Les Saintes is a territory of the northern hemisphere situated in North America, in the Caribbean islands, between the Tropic of Cancer and the Equator. It is positioned at 15°51' North, the same latitude as Thailand or Honduras, and at 61°36' West, the same longitude as Labrador and the Falkland Islands.


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