Le Morne Brabant

르몬 브라방

Le Morne Brabant is a peninsula at the extreme southwestern tip of the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. On it rises a basalt monolith of the same name, 556 metres high, with a flat summit that covers more than 12 hectares. The steep slopes have many caves and overhangs, and the peninsula is mostly surrounded by a lagoon, which makes it a well-known tourist attraction.

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At a glance

Country: Mauritius
Location: Southwest Mauritius
Height: 556 m
Type: Mountain

Quick answers

Where is Le Morne Brabant?

Le Morne Brabant is in Southwest Mauritius.

How tall is Le Morne Brabant?

Le Morne Brabant is about 556 m tall.

A basalt mountain jutting into the lagoon, once a refuge for escaped slaves.

UNESCO added the mountain to the World Heritage List in 2008. It is a symbol of the history of slavery on Mauritius, because in the 18th and 19th centuries people who escaped from slavery are said to have hidden in its caves and on its summit.

Name and nature

The mountain is named after the Dutch East India Company ship Brabant, which ran aground here on 29 December 1783. The peninsula has its own micro-climate, and it is a refuge for two rare plants, the Mandrinette and the Boucle d'Oreille.

The legend of the mountain

The peninsula is rich in cultural myth and legend as a refuge for Maroons, people who escaped slavery. A legend says that on 1 February 1835, after slavery was abolished in Mauritius, a police group came to tell them they were free. The people on the summit, the story goes, thought they would be arrested and made slaves again, so they jumped to their deaths. This is a story passed down, and the sources describe it as rumour or legend, not as proven fact.

Remembering freedom

Since 1987 the date has been marked as the Annual Commemoration of the Abolition of Slavery, especially by Mauritian Creoles. A monument at the site carries lines from the poem Le Morne Territoire Marron by Richard Sedley Assonne. They say that there were hundreds of Maroons who chose death over the chains of slavery. The coast off Le Morne is also often cited as the place of an underwater waterfall, an optical illusion seen from the air.

Fun facts

In the 18th and 19th centuries escaped slaves hid in its caves and on its summit.
The monolith is 556 metres high and its summit is over 12 hectares.
The mountain is named after a Dutch ship that ran aground on 29 December 1783.
Two rare plants, the Mandrinette and the Boucle d'Oreille, live here.
Since 1987 the abolition date has been commemorated each year.