Earthwatch participants

Team 1 (19 January to 2 February): Ian Bainbridge, Bradley Braun, Jonathan Howe, Roger Lucas and George Weiss.

Team 2 (2 to 16 February): Faye Hogan, Judith Palmer and Wendell Zipse.

Fieldwork in Ankara; Aylin Agar, Özge Basar and Çigdem Uysal.

     Ile de la Passe guards the entrance through the coral reef into Grand Port at the south-east of Mauritius. Control of this coral islet was the key to control of the Indian Ocean from the early 18thcentury until 1810. The islet, pivotal in the last Napoleonic naval victory against the British at the "Battle of Grand Port", boasts some of the most impressive surviving examples of French military architecture in the southern hemisphere. Later British military installations are of considerable importance for the heritage of Mauritius and of interest to students of colonial history.