See Also: Galapagos Islands(encyclopedia)
Galapagos Islands(dictionary)
Galapagos Islands(tourism)
Galapagos(tourism)
Galapagos hotels(tourism)
Aerolineas Galapagos(tourism)
Aerolineas Galapagos flights(tourism)
Aerolineas Galapagos code(tourism)
Aru Islands(encyclopedia)
Islands, Bay of(encyclopedia)

Galapagos Islands (sh)




Spanish Archipielago de Colon

Island group, eastern Pacific Ocean.

A province (pop., 2001: 18,640) of Ecuador, the Galapagos are a group of 19 islands lying on the Equator 600 mi (1,000 km) west of the mainland. Their total land area of 3,093 sq mi (8,010 sq km) is scattered over 23,000 sq mi (59,500 sq km) of ocean. Visited by the Spanish in 1535, they were unclaimed when Ecuador took official possession of them in 1832. They became internationally famous after being visited in 1835 by British naturalist Charles Darwin; their unusual fauna, including the giant tortoise (Spanish galapago), contributed to his ideas on natural selection. Ecuador made the Galapagos a wildlife sanctuary in 1935 and a national park in 1968; in 1978 they were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site.