Welcome to TristanDaCunha.org – a website about the remotest island in the world, Tristan da Cunha.

Tristan da Cunha lies 2,816 kilometres (1,750 miles) from South Africa and 3,360 kilometres (2,088 miles) from South America. The closest land mass is Saint Helena a mere 2,430 kilometres (1,510 miles) distant.

For more details on its location, please view our Map/Nearest Islands page.

Tristan was first discovered in 1506 by the Portuguese sailor Tristão da Cunha. However, Tristão was unable to land on Tristan because of accessibility difficulties and rough seas. Despite this, Tristão named the island ‘Ilha de Tristão da Cunha’ – roughly translated as ‘The Islands of Tristão da Cunha’. The name was changed to Tristan da Cunha at a later date.

The island is a dependency of Saint Helena – a British Overseas Territory. Tristan da Cunha’s motto is “Our faith is our strength”, and its National Anthem is the British God Save the Queen. The island’s capital (and most populated city) is ‘Edinburgh of the Seven Seas’, more commonly called Edinburgh. In 2005, the Royal Mail assigned Tristan the postcode of TDCU 1ZZ. This was for two reasons:

– the mail was getting lost because the island had no postcode

– the capital was being confused with the Scottish city of Edinburgh.

The territory consists of a number of islands – Tristan da Cunha (38 square miles approximately), the uninhabited Nightingale Islands, and the wildlife reserves of Inaccessible Island and Gough Island. For further general information about Tristan da Cunha, please view our About Tristan page.

Every citizen who is able to work is a farmer by trade. All land is communally owned and various measures are in place to prevent better off families from gaining excess wealth. The main source of income is the island’s lobster factory. Most people have more than one job and many work for the local government. You can read more information about Tristan’s economy.