Le Morne Brabant

Le Morne Brabant is a rugged monolithic mountain on a peninsula at the south-western corner of Mauritius. Its summit rises to about 556 metres, and steep cliffs drop on most sides towards a shallow lagoon and white sand beaches.

During the 18th and early 19th centuries, enslaved people who escaped from plantations, known as maroons, used the mountain as a refuge, as its cliffs made it hard to reach. Oral tradition tells that when a police expedition went to the peninsula on 1 February 1835 after slavery was abolished, some maroons believed they had come to capture them and leapt from the cliffs. UNESCO inscribed the Le Morne Cultural Landscape on the World Heritage List in 2008 as a symbol of resistance to slavery.

The Slave Route Monument, inscribed with a poem, was set up in remembrance of those enslaved. The mountain is also a refuge for rare plants, including Trochetia boutoniana, the national flower of Mauritius since 1992, whose only known wild occurrences are on the slopes of Le Morne.

A hiking trail climbs from the base to a viewpoint below the summit, with a steep final section over rocks. The views over the lagoon, the reef and the underwater sand formations offshore are some of the best known in Mauritius.

Sources differ on whether a licensed guide is required for the steep top section, so check locally before climbing; guided hikes are widely offered. Start early to avoid the midday heat and carry enough water.

How did Le Morne get its name?

Le Morne Brabant takes the second part of its name from the Dutch East India Company ship Brabant, which ran aground off the peninsula on 29 December 1783. The mountain itself is a basalt monolith whose flat summit covers more than 12 hectares, and its steep slopes are full of caves and overhangs that gave shelter to escaped slaves.

The UNESCO listing of 2008 was extended in 2011. The protected core covers about 3.5 square kilometres, with a buffer zone of about 24 square kilometres around it. Since 1987 the date of 1 February 1835 has been marked across Mauritius as the annual commemoration of the abolition of slavery, and the story of the maroons who jumped from the cliffs sits at the centre of that day.

The memorial at the foot of the mountain carries a line from the poem Le Morne Territoire Marron by Richard Sedley Assonne, which says the maroons chose death over the chains of slavery. Besides the national flower, known locally as the Boucle d'Oreille, the slopes shelter the rare Mandrinette. A lagoon wraps around most of the peninsula, and the sea off its tip is the place most often linked to the so-called underwater waterfall.