The Treaty of Fontainebleau removed Napoleon to the Mediterranean island of Elba off the Tuscan coast. To pacify him, Napoleon was given rule over the picturesque island, where he promptly inaugurated a series of reforms and infrastructural improvements.

It wasn’t enough to occupy him, apparently – he lasted just 300 days on Elba. Maybe he was sick of all the tourists crowding the many beaches.

Napoleon had a number of homes on Elba. At first, he stayed in a first-floor apartment in the town hall of Portoferraio (Elba’s largest city) before taking up residence in the Villa dei Mulini overlooking the entrance to the city, where we can see the various gardens planted atop the cliffside building.

The largest and most extravagant of Napoleon’s Elba residences was Villa San Martino, located in the mountains above Portoferraio. Interestingly, Napoleon never spent much of his time on Elba here despite San Martino’s sprawling acreage, opulence, and relative quiet. Both villas operate today as Napoleonic museums.

After escaping Elba in February 1815, Napoleon returned to France, retook the country, launched another military offensive, and was defeated again by a British-Prussian-Dutch coalition. This time, Napoleon would be sent away to a place he could not return from: Saint Helena¹, a small British island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean located 1,870 km (1,160 mi) from the coast of Africa. Here, Napoleon would spend the rest of his life, doted on by a small group of followers and constantly at odds with the treatment he received at the hands of his British captors.

Even today, remote and mountainous Saint Helena has a population of less than 5,000 people and can only be reached by boat (though a long-awaited airport is apparently on its way for 2015). The capital of the island is the narrow valley town of Jamestown², the location Napoleon spent his first night on Saint Helena while waiting for his permanent residence to be renovated to accommodate him.

Wary of being disturbed by the town’s residents, he looked to find a different residence further toward the interior of Saint Helena while his home was under construction. While returning from a horseback inspection of his not-yet-built estate, he spotted a green area in the valley below, rode down to investigate, and immediately signaled that he would rather stay there than in Jamestown. This location was known as the Briars, and was owned by the Balcombe family. Mr. Balcombe offered Napoleon his family’s home; Napoleon refused to displace them out of respect and instead stayed in the smaller house directly adjacent. Here Napoleon famously became friends with Balcombe’s 13-year-old daughter Betsy; one of the few ever allowed to address the emperor as simply ‘Boney’.

Napoleon’s final home, Longwood, was finally available for him to move into in December 1815. Napoleon was never happy here as this was a less hospitable part of the island, but British authorities thought it prudent to keep him here in order to prevent another possible escape attempt³. A new house was built adjacent to the original home, but Napoleon never occupied it, staying at Longwood until his death in May 1821. Today, Longwood is a museum owned by the French government.

On the orders of the governor, Napoleon was originally buried not in France but on Saint Helena in a rather modest plot. An argument over whether the gravestone should read simply ‘Napoleon’ (as traditionally befitting an emperor) or his full civilian name led to the tomb being left nameless. Napoleon’s remains were relocated to France in 1840, but the tomb remains in place, surrounded by a modest fence.

Locations: Italy, U.K. Overseas Territory / Categories: Buildings, Crowds, Islands, Monuments, Street Views

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The island of Tristan da Cunha and its surrounding archipelago are located in the southern Atlantic ocean, 2816 km from the nearest continent, making it the most remote island in the world!

Tristan da Cunha is a dependency of the British overseas territory Saint Helena, and also a live volcanic island. The main settlement, “Edinburgh of the Seven Seas“¹, had to be temporarily abandoned in 1961 due the volcano erupting.

As Edinburgh of the Seven Seas is 2,400 km from the main settlement on Saint Helena, it chalks up an additional record of the “most remote permanent settlement in the world”.

The other islands in the archipelago include Gough Island, which has a temporary population of 6 South Africans who work at the small weather station…

… and the mysterious sounding Inaccessible Island. Officially uninhabited (presumably for obvious reasons), Inaccessible Island also appears to be inaccessible to high-resolution photography satellites (unlike the rest of the archipelago).

More info on Tristan da Cunha, Edinburgh of the Seven Seas and Saint Helena can be found at Wikipedia.

Thanks to Nico, Tom and Matt.

Locations: U.K. Overseas Territory / Categories: Islands, Volcanoes

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So in Steve’s honour, we’d like to welcome you to the Cayman Islands very own Stingray City, a series of shallow sand bars where stingrays are found in abundance and visitors can feed, pet, and swim with these incredible creatures. Around each of those boats, you can clearly see the dark shapes of their bodies as the rays congregate to be fed by tourists.

This post is dedicated to Steve, his wife Terri, and their young family.

More on Steve Irwin, Stingray City, the Cayman Islands and of course Stingrays, at Wikipedia.

Locations: U.K. Overseas Territory / Categories: Animals, Crowds, Islands, Watercraft

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Currently an overseas territory of the United Kingdom, the glacier covered main island of South Georgia was invaded by Argentinean forces on 19 March 1982 – triggering the start of the Falklands War.

South Georgia is also the final resting place of British explorer Ernest Shackleton, who is buried somewhere just south of the settlement of Grytviken, which is looking a little run-down since whaling ended here in 1966 – you can still see the rusting remains of whale oil processing plants and abandoned whaling ships.

Most of the rest of the island group is uncovered by high-resolution, with the stunning exception of the Candlemas Islands, a pair of uninhabited volcanic islands surrounded by hundreds of awesome icebergs.

Long list of further reading: South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Grytviken, Falklands war, the Candlemas Islands, and finally the official site of South Georgia!

Locations: U.K. Overseas Territory / Categories: Buildings, Islands, Natural Landmarks, Watercraft

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We’ll start today’s tour (hopefully rain free) with the famous Gibraltar rock and the monkeys that live there. The Barbary Apes live in a cave near the Charles V Wall and tourists can walk up the rock to see the monkeys. Most of the paths up the rock are off-limits to the public but from the satellite viewpoint we can see on top of the rock there are various look out points with gun batteries.

A fair amount of Gibraltar is built on reclaimed land and the lack of space is apparent when you look at Gibraltar’s only airstrip. Stretching the full width of the land (and plus some) it even intersects a road. At either side you can see a few cars waiting for the runway to be clear. Lastly on our little tour we visit the the most southerly point of Gibraltar where you can see Europa Point Lighthouse.

Thanks: Carson Diltz, Caius Toneriko, Keith T., damian, Rob, Jan Brasna, David de Hora, Teseo, Daniel

Locations: U.K. Overseas Territory / Categories: Natural Landmarks, Structures

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