User:Lar/ToDo/Port-Cros
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| Geography | |
|---|---|
| Location | Mediterranean Sea |
| Coordinates | 43°00′18″N 6°23′55″E / 43.00500°N 6.39861°E |
| Archipelago | Îles d'Hyères |
| Administration | |
| Demographics | |
| Population | 30 |
| Additional information | |
| Time zone | |
Port-Cros is a Mediterranean French island off the coast of the Riviera, near Toulon. It is one of the three major islands that constitute the Îles d'Hyères of France and is part of the commune of Hyères. Port-Cros is 4.5 miles wide by 2 miles long and the elevation of the highest point is 199 meters above sea level.
The island was donated to the French government under the condition that it be made into a national park in order to preserve the fauna and flora of the island. It has water sources that make the vegetation lusher than the other islands in the grouping. The Port-Cros National Park was created on 14 December 1963 and is the sole landowner on the island.[citation needed]
History[edit]
Port-Cros was known to the ancient Greeks as Messé (Middle Island) but the current name is due to the hollow shape of its harbor. The discovery of graves, water works and Roman gold coins are evidence of the existence of a Roman colony on Port-Cros. By the fifth century A.D., the monastery of Lérins had a branch on the neighboring island of Levant with an outpost in the valley of Notre Dame. This monastery was ruined by Barbary pirates that repeatedly ravaged the archipelago during the tenth to sixteenth centuries.
