Le Morne Brabant
- UNESCO World Heritage
Interesting facts
- The boucle d'oreille, declared the national flower of Mauritius in 1992, is known in the wild almost only from the steep slopes of Le Morne Brabant.
- The plant's Creole name means "earring", after its bell-shaped flowers that hang downwards; its scientific name honours the French botanist Louis Bouton.
- In 2003 a University of Mauritius team found three previously unknown caves on the mountain, with ash layers and roughly 300-year-old bones of a young sheep.
- Those finds were the first physical evidence that maroons really did live on the mountain, beyond what oral tradition and legend recorded.
- A deep cleft known as the V-Gap, nicknamed the "key to the mountain", guards the approach to the summit plateau and made it a natural fortress.
- Eighteenth-century travellers, among them the astronomer abbé de La Caille and the writer Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, recorded bands of runaway slaves in the area.
- The people who fled here had roots in Madagascar, Mozambique, the Swahili coast and South Asia, brought to the island first by Dutch and later French colonists.
- The World Heritage property covers about 350 hectares around the mountain, set within a buffer zone of roughly 24 square kilometres.
Why it is worth it
Le Morne Brabant is the great basalt block that anchors the south-western tip of Mauritius. It rises 556 m from a peninsula almost entirely ringed by a turquoise lagoon, its steep walls pitted with caves and overhangs, and its flat summit covers more than 12 ha. The peninsula has its own microclimate, and the mountain is a refuge for two rare plants, the mandrinette and the boucle d'oreille. The name is linked to the Brabant, a ship of the Dutch East India Company that ran aground here in December 1783. The reef and seabed off the peninsula are also often cited as the site of the island's famous "underwater waterfall".
The mountain's importance, though, is human rather than natural. In the early 19th century, enslaved people who had escaped, known as maroons, are said to have found shelter in its caves and on its nearly inaccessible summit. The best-known story is told as legend: after slavery was abolished, police were sent up the mountain on 1 February 1835 to tell the maroons they were free. Believing they were about to be recaptured, many are said to have leapt from the cliffs to their deaths. Whatever its exact truth, the story made Le Morne a symbol of resistance. Since 1987, 1 February has been marked here each year to commemorate the abolition of slavery.
UNESCO inscribed the Le Morne Cultural Landscape as a World Heritage Site in 2008, recognising its significance in the history of slavery. At the foot of the mountain a memorial carries lines by the Mauritian poet Richard Sedley Assonne about the maroons who chose death over slavery.
Many visitors come to hike. A trail climbs from near the base through forest and scrub, about 2.5 km of gradually steeper switchbacks, to a plateau and a viewpoint marked by a cross at about 490 m, with sweeping views over the lagoon. The final scramble to the true summit is steep and exposed, and access to it is restricted by the Le Morne Heritage Trust, which manages the site. Start early to avoid the midday heat.
Getting there
Le Morne is on the south-west coast of Mauritius, about 25 km by straight line from Bambous, the nearest sizeable town. The nearest airport is Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International (MRU), about 39 km away by straight line. Most visitors come by rental car, taxi or hotel transfer to the start of the trail.
Plan your visit
We have no confirmed visit data yet. Once it is confirmed, this block also carries the date it was checked.
Nearby places
- Seven Coloured Earths 6.6 km · rock-formation
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From the encyclopaedia
Le Morne Brabant is a peninsula at the extreme southwestern tip of the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius. On it is a basaltic monolith of the same name 556 metres high. Its summit covers an area of over 12 hectares. There are many caves and overhangs on the steep slopes. It is largely surrounded by a lagoon and is a well known tourist attraction. It is also a refuge for two rare plants, the Mandrinette and the Boucle d'Oreille. The peninsula of Le Morne benefits from a micro-climate. The mountain is named after the Dutch East India Company ship Brabant that ran aground here on 29 December 1783.
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