The Republic of Seychelles comprises a group of 115 islands located in the Western Indian Ocean between 4 and 11 degrees South of the equator. Its land area is 45 500 ha.
41 islands are granitic and they include the so-called inner islands, of which Mahe (15500 ha), Praslin (3,800 ha) and La Digue (1 000 ha) are the most important ones. All the granitic islands are situated within a distance of 50 km from Mahe. The rest of the islands are coralline, raising only a few metres above the sea level.
The Climate is equatorial with an average annual rainfall of 2 200 mm. Humidity is uniformly high at an average of 80% and mean temperature ranges from 24 to 30ºC. The prevailing winds are the Northwest (December to March) and Southeast (May to October) monsoons.
