Victoria

Victoria is the capital of Seychelles, on the northeast coast of the island of Mahé in the Indian Ocean. Its small silver clock tower, modeled on a clock tower in London, stands at the main crossroads of the town.

France claimed the islands in the 1750s, and French colonists settled the site in 1778, calling it L'Établissement. Britain took over the islands in the early 19th century, and in 1841 the town was renamed Victoria after Queen Victoria. It became the capital of independent Seychelles in the 1970s, and land reclaimed from the sea along the waterfront has widened the town since then.

The inner harbor east of the town is a base for tuna fishing fleets, and tuna canning is a main industry of the port. Vanilla, coconuts and copra have long been exported from Victoria, and fish from local boats is sold at the market each morning.

The Sir Selwyn Selwyn-Clarke Market, a covered market of the 1840s, sells fish, fruit, spices and vegetables under its roof. The Arulmigu Navasakti Vinayagar Temple, a Hindu temple with a carved and painted tower, stands a short walk from the Immaculate Conception Cathedral and St Paul's Cathedral. The Botanical Gardens, on the southern edge of the town, keep giant tortoises and the coco de mer palm, whose huge double nut grows only in Seychelles. Morne Seychellois, the highest peak of the islands, rises in the national park behind the town.