Assumption Island is a small island located at 9°45′S 46°29′E / 9.75°S 46.483°E / -9.75; 46.483 in the Indian Ocean north of Madagascar and is part of the country of the Seychelles. It is located about 30 km southeast of the Aldabra Atoll and is part of the Aldabra Group. It is a single coral island which measures 11.07 km² in area and which has a small settlement on the sheltered western side, surrounded by Casuarina trees. An abandoned coconut palm plantation is just south of it. There is a concrete runway that runs from between the two sand dunes on the southeast to the settlement. The western shore features an almost uninterruptend sandy beach of 5 km. Two large sand dunes are prominent on the southeastern coast of the island, one of them 32 m high.
Due to the devastating effect of guano mining which lasted until 1983, the island is dominated by expanses of bare rock and caves, and is sparsely covered with low-growing vegetation.
A notable feature of this island is the Assumption Island day gecko, a subspecies of gecko found only on this island.
The documentary The Silent World was partially shot on Assumption.
Famous quotes containing the words assumption and/or island:
“The principle of the brotherhood of man is ... narcissistic ... for the grounds for that love have always been the assumption that we ought to realize that we are the same the whole world over.”
—Germaine Greer (b. 1939)
“Know that, on the right hand of the Indies, there is an island called California, very near to the Terrestrial Paradise, which was peopled with black women.... Their arms were all of gold.”
—For the State of California, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)