Robinson Crusoe Island
Chile · Americas
About
Robinson Crusoe Island (Spanish: Isla Robinson Crusoe, pronounced [ˈisla ˈroβinsoŋ kɾuˈso]) is the second largest of the Juan Fernández Islands, situated 670 km (362 nmi; 416 mi) west of San Antonio, Chile, in the South Pacific Ocean. It is the more populous of the inhabited islands in the archipelago (the other being Alejandro Selkirk Island), with most of that in the town of San Juan Bautista at Cumberland Bay on the island's north coast. The island was formerly known as Más a Tierra ('Closer to Land').
From 1704 to 1709, the island was home to the marooned Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk, who at least partially inspired novelist Daniel Defoe's fictional Robinson Crusoe in his 1719 novel, although the novel is explicitly set in the Caribbean. This was just one of several survival stories from the period of which Defoe would have been aware. To reflect the literary lore associated with the island and attract tourists, the Chilean government renamed it Robinson Crusoe Island in 1966.
Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)。Photography via Wikimedia Commons.