The
Galápagos Islands (Official name Archipiélago de Colón; other Spanish names
Islas de Colón or
Islas Galápagos, from
galápago, "saddle"—after the shells of saddlebacked
Galápagos tortoises) are an
archipelago of
volcanic islands distributed around the
equator, 972 kilometres/604 miles (525 nautical miles) west of continental
Ecuador in the
Pacific OceanCoordinates 0°40'S, 90°33'W.
The Galápagos archipelago, with a population of around 40,000, is a province of Ecuador, a country in northwestern South America, and the islands are all part of Ecuador's national park system. The principal language on the islands is Spanish.
The islands are famed for their vast number of endemic species and the studies by Charles Darwin during the voyage of the Beagle that contributed to the inception of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection.
The archipelago has been known by many different names, including the "Enchanted Islands," because of the way in which the strong and swift currents made navigation difficult. The first crude navigation chart of the islands was done by the buccaneer Ambrose Cowley in 1684. He named the islands after some of his fellow pirates or after the English noblemen who helped the pirates' cause. More recently, the Ecuadorian government gave most of the islands Spanish names. While the Spanish names are official, many users (especially ecological researchers) continue to use the older English names, particularly as those were the names used when Charles Darwin visited.
