The French Southern and Antarctic Lands (Terres Australes et Antarctiques Françaises, or TAAF) includes a widely scattered collection of islands in the South Indian Ocean. When it was established in 1955 TAAF consisted of several French-controlled islands in the sub-Antarctic, including the Îles Kerguélen, Amsterdam, St.-Paul, and the Îles Crozet. Collectively these territories are called the Îles Australes ("southern islands"). None of these islands have any permanent population but France maintains military or scientific stations on them. In January 2005 the TAAF office also assumed the administration of several small tropical islands in the waters surrounding the former French colony of Madagascar. These islands, known collectively as the Îles Éparses ("scattered islands"), were previously administered as dependencies of Madagascar and then (after Madagascar became independent) as dependencies of Réunion. All of these islands are wildlife sanctuaries closed to visitors except by special permit. TAAF is administered from an office in Réunion. The French word for a lighthouse, phare, is often reserved for the larger coastal lighthouses; a smaller light or harbor light is called a feu (literally "fire," but here meaning "light"). The front light of a range (alignement) is the feu antérieur and the rear light is the feu postérieur. In French île is an island, cap is a cape, pointe is a promontory or point of land, roche is a rock, récife is a reef, baie is a bay, estuaire is an estuary or inlet, détroit is a strait, rivière is a river, and havre is a harbor. Aids to navigation on these remote islands are operated and maintained by DEAL Réunion, the transportation ministry of Réunion. ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS World List of Lights. Admiralty numbers are from volume D of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals for the Îles Éparses and Îles Crozet and from Volume Q for the Îles Kerguelen and Île Amsterdam; U.S. NGA List numbers are from Publication 112.
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![]() Light atop weather station, Île Tromelin, September 2002 ex-Panoramio photo by Ralf174978 posted by Lightphotos.net |
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Posted October 30, 2005. Checked and revised April 29, 2025. Lighthouses: 16. Site copyright 2025 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.