Los Roques archipelago

Los Roques archipelago

Los Roques is located 156 kilometers north of Venezuela's central coast, between 11°43’ and 11°58’ latitude north and 66° 53’ and 66° 57’ longitude west. The entire park has an area 2.251 KM2 spreading 46 kilometers from east to west and 26.6 kilometers from north to south.

The Los Roques islands are a federal dependency of Venezuela, consisting of about 350 islands, cays or islets. The Islas Los Roques have an atoll structure, with two external barriers formed by coral communities, too, an inner lagoon and sandy shallows.The existence of numerous keys provides a variety of marine settings which go from sand beaches, rock beaches with strong surf, bays with still water, coastal reef or barrier, mangrove swamp areas, lagoons and salt mines, among others. There is no doubt that the marine setting of Los Roques is one of the most beautiful and special of the Caribbean and of the world and that its coral reefs are among the best preserved. The archipelago is protected by two reef barriers: One that goes from north to south by some 24 kilometers and protects the archipelago from eastern currents and a second barrier that runs some 32 kilometers from east to west.Los Roques is similar in size to that of the complete Northern Caribbean Virgin Islands.

These islands had been sighted by early European navigators and in 1589 the then governor of the Venezuelan province ordered the formal takeover of these islands on behalf of the colony. The Dutch considered Los Roques to belong to their island territory of Curaçao because of its proximity to Bonaire which also belonged to the Dutch. The author M.D. Teenstra in 1836 still writes (in his book "The Dutch West Indies"): The Government of Curaçao also includes the uninhabited islets and rocks Little Curaçao, Aves, Roques and Orchilla. In 1871 the then president Antonio Guzmán Blanco created by decree the Territorio Colón (Columbus territory) which included Los Roques and other adjacent islands. The island of Gran Roque was named as the center of territory government