The Egmont Islands ("Six Iles") are one of the six coralatolls that make up the Chagos Archipelago. The atoll lies less than 10 km South the coral reef of the Southern rim of the Great Chagos Bank. The nearest Island is Danger Island on the Great Chagos Bank, less than 30 km due North. The total size is about 39 km2, including the lagoon and the fringing coral reef. The land area totals about 4 km2. The largest island is "Ile Sud-Est" (Eastern Egmont), where the settlement was located, with an area of 1.5 km2. While "Ile Lubine" is similar in size, the other islets are smaller. Orders see Anthozoa zsnobordinkid505@aol. ... islands in the Indian Ocean, lying 500 km south of the Maldives. ... A reef surrounding an islet. ... The Great Chagos Bank, in the Chagos Archipelago, about 500 km South of the Maldives, is the largest atoll structure in the world, with a total area of roughly 13 000 km2. ... Danger Island is the only island of its group. ... See lagoon (disambiguation) for other possible meanings. ... A reef surrounding an islet. ...
There are two passages into the lagoon along the Northern Rim, Fausse Passe in the Northeast and a wider passage in the Northwest. See lagoon (disambiguation) for other possible meanings. ...
GPScoordinates of the island are approximately 6 deg 40.5 S, 71 deg 21.3 E (former settlement on Ile Sud-Est). Over fifty GPS satellites such as this NAVSTAR have been launched since 1978. ... See Cartesian coordinate system or Coordinates (elementary mathematics) for a more elementary introduction to this topic. ...
The individual islands are all on the Southern rim of the coral reef. They are, from Southeast to Northwest:
The islands were discovered by Vasco da Gama in the early sixteenth century, then claimed in the eighteenth century by France as a possession of Mauritius.
Other uninhabited islands, especially in the Salomon group, are common stopping points for long-distance sailors travelling from Southeast Asia to the Red Sea or the coast of Africa.
The British Government instituted an investigation into relocating the former islanders to some of the formerly inhabited islands, but concluded that this was impossible due to a lack of fresh water and risk of flooding.
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