The Seychelles archipelago consists of 115 islands:
41 granitic islands & 74 coral islands, lying between 4°S and
10°S south of the equator and lie between 480km and 1,600km from the east coast of Africa in the western Indian Ocean.
This Indian Ocean republic occupies a land surface area of 455 km2 and an ocean surface of 1.4 million km2 named the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The Seychelles represents an archipelago of timeless beauty, tranquillity and harmony and famous for its worldbeating beaches and for its great diversity which rolls from lush forests down to the warm azure ocean.
The archipelag is divided into 2 groups of islands:
"The Inner Islands" & "The Outer Islands". Of these 115 islands, 41 Inner Islands constitute the oldest midoceanic granitic islands on Earth while a further 74 form the 5 groups of low-lying coral atolls and reef islets that are the Outer Islands.
The Inner Islands which are mostly granitic, cluster mainly around the principal islands of Mahe, Praslin and La Digue, forming the cultural and economic hub of Seychelles, as well as the centre of its tourism industry. Together they are home to the majority of Seychelles’ accommodation facilities as well almost the entire population of the
archipelago. They are the granitic islands which stand out with their beaches, strewn with big smooth giant rocks which emerge gently from the ocean. Mahé, Praslin, La Digue, Curieuse, Cousin, Cousine, Frégate, Félicité, North Island, Silhouette and the neighbouring islets form part of the "Inner Islands" group.
The Outer Islands are coral, flat, sandy, and planted with coconut trees. Bird and Denis islands the closes coral islands which are 100 km north of Mahé, while the others in the south west can be as isolated as Aldabra at 1100 km away. As for the Outer Islands in the south, they are divided into 2 groups:
Amirantes and Aldabra.
The Amirantes group has over twenty islands which revolve around Saint Joseph, the African Bank, Desroches, Alphonse and Poivre islands. The Aldabra group is made up of 22 islands surrounding Providence, Farquhar, Cosmoledo and the Aldabra Atoll which has given its name to the group.