El Hierro
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El Hierro, nicknamed Isla del Meridiano ("The Meridian Island") is a Spanish island. It is the smallest and furthest south and west of the Canary Islands, in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa. It is situated at 27°45' north, 18°00' west.
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Description
Geography
Like the rest of the chain, the island is sharply mountainous. It has an area of 278 km².
Maximum high is situated in the middle of the island, in Malpaso, with 1.501 meters high.
Like all the Canary Islands, El Hierro is a tourist destination. It is served by a small airport at Valverde and a ferry terminal, both of which connect to Tenerife.
Political organization
The island is part of the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. It includes 2 municipalities:
Valverde is situated in the northeast and Frontera in the southwest, both contain several villages.
The seat of the island government (cabildo insular) is in Valverde town. 10.162 people (2003) live on the island.
The Meridian island
El_Hierro_Western_End.JPG
The island's name in several languages (including French, German, Danish) is Ferro, known in history as the prime meridian in common use outside of the British Commonwealth. Already in the 2nd century A.D., Ptolemy considered a definition of the zero meridian based on the western-most position of the world, giving maps with only positive (eastern) longitudes. In the year 1634, France ruled by Louis XIII and Richelieu decided that Ferro's meridian should be used as the reference on maps, since this island is the most western position of the Old World and also thought to be exactly 20 degrees west of Paris, so indeed the exact position of Ferro was never considered. Old maps (outside of Anglo-America) often have a common grid with Paris degrees at the top and Ferro degrees offset by 20 at the bottom.
It was later found that the actual island of El Hierro itself is in fact 20° 23' 9" west of Paris, but the Ferro meridian was still defined as 20 degrees west of Paris.
The Ferro meridian is 17° 39' 46" west of the Greenwich meridian.
See also
External link
- El Hierro (http://www.el-hierro.org/) (Official page, in Spanish)
- Non official information site (http://www.islaelhierro.com/) (Also English)de:El Hierro