Réunion (officially La Réunion) is a volcanic island in the South Indian Ocean roughly 800 km (500 mi) east of Madagascar. The island is elliptical in shape, about 70 km (45 mi) by 40 km (25 mi). It was uninhabited when Portuguese navigators discovered it in 1513. Settled by the French around 1640, Réunion has remained French ever since; in 1946 it became an overseas département of the French Republic. Like all of France it belongs to the European Union and uses the euro as its currency. The island has a population of about 900,000. Réunion has no natural harbors of any size, so beginning in the late nineteenth century an artificial harbor called Port Réunion, or simply Le Port, was cut into the coast near Pointe des Galets, at the northwestern corner of the island. 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. Lighthouses in Réunion are operated and maintained by the Direction de l'Environnement, de l'Aménagement et du Logement (DEAL). DEAL also maintains the lights of the French Southern and Antarctic Territories, described on a separate page. ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS World List of Lights. Admiralty numbers are from volume D of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. U.S. NGA List numbers are from Publication 112.
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![]() Pointe de Bel-Air Light, Sainte-Suzanne, February 2024 ex-Google Maps photo by Jean Luc Abelard |
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![]() Jetée Nord Light, Port Réunion, March 2017 photo copyright Capt. Peter Mosselberger; used by permission |
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Information available on lost lighthouses:
Notable faux lighthouses:
Adjoining pages: North: Seychelles | East: Mauritius
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Posted November 14, 2005. Checked and revised April 15, 2024. Lighthouses: 18. Site copyright 2024 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.