Curieuse Island

Curieuse is an island of the Seychelles and is counted as any granite islands of the Seychelles inner to the main island of Mahé. It is only about a kilometer from Praslin. It is the fifth largest of the inner Seychelles.

Curieuse is three square miles in size, has no significant infrastructure and is therefore inhabited by few people. Previously it was known as Île Rouge because of its red soil and used in the 19th century as Aussätzigenlager for leprosy sufferers.

Today Curieuse houses a small research station for water turtles ( and other seychellentypische flora and fauna). The island is regularly visited by day trippers. Instead of roads and hotels can be found on Curieuse mangrove forests and Seychelles giant tortoises. Curieuse and south to Baie Curieuse form the National Park Curieuse Marine National Park.

Curieuse is next to Praslin Island the only island on which the coco de mer Coco de Mer is home to endemic. As the waters between the two islands is partially very flat - there are " joints " that are consistently just a few meters deep ( <10 m water depth) - it seems likely that Curieuse was once a part of Praslin.

• Uninhabited Island
• Island (Indian Ocean)
• Island (Africa)
• Island (Seychelles )