Mauritius

Mauritius began as a volcano in the Indian Ocean, and a coral reef encloses most of its shore in calm lagoons. A central plateau is broken by jagged peaks such as Pieter Both, whose summit balances a boulder on a narrow neck of rock. The Black River Gorges shelter much of the surviving native forest, and at Chamarel bare earth shows bands of red, violet and ochre. The country also includes Rodrigues, far to the east, and the remote Agaléga islands.

Nobody lived here when Portuguese sailors charted the island. The Dutch named it after Prince Maurice of Nassau in 1598 and stayed long enough to see the dodo die out. France took over in 1715 and built sugar estates with enslaved Africans and Malagasy. Britain captured it in 1810 but kept French law. After slavery ended in 1835, indentured labourers from India landed at the Aapravasi Ghat by the hundreds of thousands. Independence came in March 1968, and a republic in 1992.

Hindu, Christian and Muslim holidays fill the calendar; at Maha Shivaratri pilgrims walk to the crater lake of Grand Bassin. Séga is played on the ravanne, a goatskin drum warmed over a fire to tighten it, and street stalls sell dholl puri, flatbread stuffed with split peas. Sugar cane covered the island for two centuries; after 1970 textile mills, beach hotels and offshore finance broadened the economy. Philatelists prize the ‘Post Office’ stamps issued here in 1847.