Photo : Corsica (Landsat 7) - high definition.png: NASA/USGS, Telperion / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
Archipel des Lavezzi
The Lavezzi archipelago brings together twenty-three islands, islets and granite reefs, about ten kilometres south-east of Bonifacio. It is the southernmost point of mainland France. The emerged land covers about 200 hectares and does not exceed 39 metres in altitude. The archipelago is uninhabited, except for the island of Cavallo.
The strait is dangerous for navigation, as the wreck of the frigate La Sémillante in 1855 recalls: more than seven hundred soldiers and sailors, on their way to the Crimean War, perished there. Two marine cemeteries on Lavezzu island recall their memory. A lighthouse, built in 1874, guides ships. The site has been a nature reserve since 1982 and since 1999 part of the Bouches de Bonifacio international marine park, managed with the Italian archipelago of La Maddalena. It is reached by boat from Bonifacio.
