Le Morne Brabant

Le Morne Brabant rises 556 metres at the end of the southwest peninsula, a basalt block with sheer walls and a wooded summit plateau reached only by a difficult route, and that inaccessibility is why it was inscribed as a World Heritage site in 2008: through the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries maroons, people who had escaped slavery, used the caves and the plateau as a refuge, and oral tradition holds that a party threw themselves from the cliff rather than surrender when a detachment came in 1835 to tell them slavery had been abolished. The mountain is a memorial rather than a viewpoint, and Mauritian Creole communities treat it that way. A marked hiking route climbs to a shoulder below the summit block.

The landscape

• The monolith - the sheer basalt block above the peninsula.
• The maroon memorial - the monument at the foot commemorating the refuge.
• The hiking route - the marked path to the shoulder below the summit.
• The lagoon - the reef water surrounding the peninsula below.

When to go

May to December for cooler climbing weather. Start early; the upper path is fully exposed and gets very hot by mid-morning. The 1 February abolition commemoration is marked at the site each year.

What to expect

The final section above the shoulder is steep, exposed and requires a guide; unguided attempts have led to rescues. The lower path is straightforward but hot. This is a site of memory, and the summit area is culturally sensitive with restricted access.

Nearby

Chamarel lies northeast; Ile aux Benitiers is offshore to the north.

Key facts