Salazie
Encyclopedia
Réunion
Réunion is a French island with a population of about 800,000 located in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar, about south west of Mauritius, the nearest island.Administratively, Réunion is one of the overseas departments of France...
.
The first settlement of the area took place in 1829 after a cyclone
Cyclone
In meteorology, a cyclone is an area of closed, circular fluid motion rotating in the same direction as the Earth. This is usually characterized by inward spiraling winds that rotate anticlockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere of the Earth. Most large-scale...
had devastated the nearby coast, and the municipality of Salazie was formed in 1889. The name of the commune is potentially derived from the Malagasy
Malagasy language
Malagasy is the national language of Madagascar, a member of the Austronesian family of languages. Most people in Madagascar speak it as a first language as do some people of Malagasy descent elsewhere.-History:...
word salazy, meaning 'good encampment'.
Geography
Salazie lies in the middle of island, north-east of Piton des NeigesPiton des Neiges
The Piton des Neiges is a massive 3,069 m shield volcano on Réunion, one of the French volcanic islands in the Mascarene Archipelago in the southwestern Indian Ocean. It is located about east of Madagascar. Piton des Neiges is the highest point on Réunion and is considered to be the highest...
(the highest point on the island), in the Cirque de Salazie (actually a volcanic caldera
Caldera
A caldera is a cauldron-like volcanic feature usually formed by the collapse of land following a volcanic eruption, such as the one at Yellowstone National Park in the US. They are sometimes confused with volcanic craters...
). The commune is totally landlocked
Landlocked
A landlocked country is a country entirely enclosed by land, or whose only coastlines lie on closed seas. There are 48 landlocked countries in the world, including partially recognized states...
, and borders the communes of Bras-Panon
Bras-Panon
Bras-Panon is a commune in the department and region of Réunion. It borders the communes of Saint-André, Saint-Benoît and Salazie; as well as the Mât river, the Rivière des Roches and the Indian Ocean....
, Cilaos
Cilaos
Cilaos is a town and commune on the French island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean. It is located centrally on the island, in a caldera of altitude 1214 m...
, La Possession
La Possession
La Possession is a commune in the French overseas department of Réunion. It is located on the northwest side of the island of Réunion, between the capital of Saint-Denis and the commune of Le Port. The commune is twinned with Villeneuve-d'Ascq, in France....
, Saint-André, Saint-Benoît, Saint-Denis, Sainte-Marie and Sainte-Suzanne.
See also
- Hell-BourgHell-BourgHell-Bourg is a small village in the Salazie commune of the French overseas department of Réunion. It is the main community in the island's Cirque de Salazie, and is named for the respected former admiral and island governor Anne Chrétien Louis de Hell. Previously the village had been named Bémaho...
, a village, part of the commune of Salazie - Trou de FerTrou de FerThe Trou de Fer is a canyon on Reunion Island, off the coast of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. The primary river flowing through the gorge, which is up to deep, is the Bras de Caverne River, which is a tributary of the Rivière du Mât...
- Communes of the Réunion department