The Bahamas, Image of the Islands

The "wreck" of the Flying Dutchman, "marooned" at the resort island of Castaway Cay. According to folklore, the Flying Dutchman is a ghost ship doomed to sail the oceans forever.

The Commonwealth of The Bahamas is one of the wealthiest countries in the Antilles, with an economy heavily dependent on tourism and offshore banking. The country extends 760 miles from the coast of Florida on the north-west almost to Haiti on the south-east. The group consists of 700 islands and 2,400 cays with an area of 13,878 km².

British settlement of the islands began in 1647. In 1973, the country attained independence from the UK.

Administrative divisions: 21 districts; Acklins and Crooked Islands, Bimini, Cat Island, Exuma, Freeport, Fresh Creek, Governor's Harbour, Green Turtle Cay, Harbour Island, High Rock, Inagua, Kemps Bay, Long Island, Marsh Harbour, Mayaguana, New Providence, Nichollstown and Berry Islands, Ragged Island, Rock Sound, Sandy Point, San Salvador, and Rum Cay.

More: map of The Bahamas.

Tongue of the Ocean (NASA, Winter/Spring 1997). The shallow Bahama shelf and the southern portion of the deep Tongue of the Ocean (darker water, upper right) can be seen in this northwest-looking view. The Tongue of the Ocean is one of two main branches that form the Great Bahama Canyon. The vertical rock walls of this submarine canyon rise 4285 meters from the canyon floor to the surrounding seabed. The Grand Bahama Canyon has been traced for more than 225 km in length. The canyon has a width of 37 km at its deepest point and an average floor slope of about 60 meters per km. During the last Ice Age, nearly 12000 years ago, much of the Bahama Shelf was above sea level. Rainfall during that period formed erosional type gullies or small canyons as rainwater flowed off the shelf into the Tongue of the Ocean. As the climate warmed and the ice melted, sea levels rose to present levels covering the eroded gullies seen on this image.