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Introduction
The Saint Helena Island is constituted with cliffs that are well blended with valleys, which are natively referred to as guts that incline from the ridges. Glance through the rocky coastline merged with subtropical grasslands, where the inscribed beauty can take a traveler to innumerable heights and views.
Location of Saint Helena
Saint Helena is a beautiful island nestled along the region of South Atlantic Ocean, lying in the midst of South America and Africa. The province of Ascension Island is placed towards the northwestern region, which is approximately about 700 mm away from it. While Tristan da Cunha is situated about the southwestern part of Saint Helena, which is at a distance of about 2300 mm.
Physical Map of Saint Helena
Saint Helena covers a total land space of about 410 km², and is constituted with three chief islands namely Saint Helena, Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha.
Saint Helena is known to possess a rocky-based volcanic terrain especially marking the coastal area. Most of the areas are covered with dense sub tropical forest where the temperature is humid in nature.
Ascension Island is made of a single chief island and numerous unoccupied satellite islands namely the Boatswain Bird Island, Boatswain Bird Rock, White Rocks, and Tartar Rock.
Watch out for high volcanic peaks ascending from the mid-Atlantic Ridge named as the Green Mountain, where the black lava, streams downward to the majestic shoreline that is covered by white sand from all ends.
Tristan da Cunha is hilly and volcanic in nature where the highest peaks being the Queen Mary's Peak that stands at a height of 2,060 m.
Climate of Saint Helena
The Climatic condition of Saint Helena is controlled by Equatorial and by the South Atlantic High Pressure weather where the annual down pouring varies between 175 to 1050 mm. March to July are the two months that experiences heavy showering while October to November are dry in temperament. St Helena positions itself along the South East Trade Wind Belt, with regular wind constantly flowing within the area throughout the year. The province gets about two hours of constant sunshine during the daytime, while being affected with the rise in humidity.
Flora and Fauna of Saint Helena
Among the widespread floras of St Helena one may catch sight of species like the insular arborescent Asteraceae that belong to the sunflower family. Other popular species of the region are St Helena redwood and St Helena ebony, which has no relation with the redwood trees of California that belong to the Cocoa family. Saint Helena can be divided into three chief vegetation zones which includes:
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The tree-fern thicket (along the central ridge, the highest elevated area)
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The Pastures (along the middle elevated area), and
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The barren and eroded zone (along the lower elevated area).
Watch out for native plant like gumwoods can also be sighted within the region. The worldly fauna of St. Helena is constituted with different variety of birds. The Wirebird is the sole national land bird existing here that breed along the region of Deadwood Plain. Sight the giant earwig Labidura herculeana bird in this region, which is slowly getting extinct day by day.
Birds that can be commonly seen here are Ascension Frigate Birds, Brown and Masked Boobie, Red Footed, Shearwaters, Boatswain Birds, Wideawake Tern and Petrels.
People of Saint Helena
Saint Helena is constituted with several inhabitants that have move down from the region of Scandinavia and Western, British Isles, and Southern Africa. Several residents seem to have drifted to the Falkland Islands or to the United Kingdom. Tristan da Cunha has a total of about 300 people residing here pertaining to the British descent. Christianity dominates the area along with the presence of Anglican and Roman Catholic. English is the native dialect spoken by the residents thriving within the region.
Arts, Culture and Music of Saint Helena
Art: Visit the local galleries especially the Wolk Art Gallery that showcases contemporary art forms along with paintings and sculptures. Handicrafts is a common activity where local natives spend most of their leisure hours in crafting wonderful objects that are even exported to other countries.
Culture: The culture of St. Helena seems to have influenced from the African-American Gullah culture. Visit the Penn Center, which is the sole cultural hub of the region that imparts training on the African-American cultural heritage. Participate in the local festival particularly the Festival of Running that pulls a huge amount of crowd.
Music: Music of St. Helena's can be witnessed by the occurrence of liturgy, where people indulge in worship by singing beautiful choirs, singing biblical rhymes and other performances within the church premises. The natives relate their music to the heavenly body in which they keep their complete faith and support.
The Saint Helena and its Dependencies flag were officially accepted during the month of October 4, 1984. The flag is designed with a Blue colored ensign, with the presence of UK flag on the topmost part of the hoist-side along with the symbol of a Saint Helena shield that is positioned in the outer side of the flag. The shield carries an inscription of gravel seashore with a three-masted ship sailing along with it.
Economy of Saint Helena
The economy of Saint Helena relies solely on the financial backing made by the UK that tentatively measures to $5 million. Fishing, livestock rearing, and the sale of handicrafts, sustain the present population of the region. The place has limited scope to jobs as most of the people resort to seeking employment abroad.
The major agricultural produce of the region is maize, potatoes, vegetables; timber; fish, crawfish and much more.
The goods that can be exports are fish like the tuna fish, frozen and canned food, and salt dried skipjack, coffee and handicrafts
The goods that are imported are food, beverages, tobacco, fuel oils, animal feed, building materials, motor vehicles and machinery.
