Forgotten World (139): Saint Helena
Just ten miles long and six miles wide, St Helena sits in the middle of the South Atlantic as one of the most isolated, inhabited islands in the world: 700 miles to Ascension Island, 1500 miles to Tristan da Cunha and 1650 miles to Cape Town. Traditionally served by the Britain’s last working Royal Mail ship, which visits the island twice a year, the island is about to obtain an airport in 2012.
The 4,000 islanders call themselves Saints and the island only has one town (Jamestown). The local economy is funded almost entirely by he British Government with just a little tourism.
Discovered by the Portuguese in 1502, it later came under the control of the British East India Company before the British Crown took control in 1834. Its main claim to historic fame is that Napoleon was exiled here after the Battle of Waterloo and died on the island.