Atlas of the Chagos Islands

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This section holds a short summary of the history of the area of present-day the British Indian Ocean Territory, illustrated with maps, including historical maps of former countries and empires that included present-day the British Indian Ocean Territory.

British Indian Ocean Territory

British Indian Ocean Territory

English British Indian Ocean Territory - British Indian Ocean Territory

The British Indian Ocean Territory lies roughly in the middle of the Indian Ocean, halfway between Africa and Indonesia, and 1,500 kilometres (930 mi) south of India, near the ► Seychelles and the ► Maldives. It is governed as the British Indian Ocean Territory, but Britain's ownership is disputed by its former inhabitants and by ► Mauritius. The territory comprises the six atolls of the Chagos Archipelago with over 1,000 individual islands. The largest island is the atoll of Diego Garcia, which is the site of a joint naval support facility of the ► United Kingdom and the ► United States. The former indigenous Ilois now live in ► Mauritius, which claims the islands as part of its sovereign territory.


Short name British Indian Ocean Territory
Official name British Indian Ocean Territory
Status British overseas territory, British since 1815
Location Indian Ocean
Capital Diego Garcia
Population approximately 4,000 military personnel and contractor inhabitants
Area 60 km²
Major language(s) English
Major religion(s) Christianity
More information British Indian Ocean Territory, Geography of the British Indian Ocean Territory, History of the British Indian Ocean Territory and Politics of the British Indian Ocean Territory
More images British Indian Ocean Territory - British Indian Ocean Territory (Category).

General maps

Orthographic projection
Map of the British Indian Ocean Territory
Map of Diego Garcia

History maps

The United Kingdom established the British Indian Ocean Territory in 1965 out of the Chagos Archipelago, part of Mauritius, and parts of the Seychelles. The former parts of the Seychelles were returned to Seychelles in 1976. The territory is not self-governing.

Satellite maps

  Satellite image of Diego Garcia, looking south

Notes and references

General remarks:

  • The WIKIMEDIA COMMONS Atlas of the World is an organized and commented collection of geographical, political and historical maps available at Wikimedia Commons. The main page is therefore the portal to maps and cartography on Wikimedia. That page contains links to entries by country, continent and by topic as well as general notes and references.
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  • Historical maps are included in the continent, country and dependency entries.
  • The status of various entities is disputed. See the content for the entities concerned.
  • The maps of former countries that are more or less continued by a present-day country or had a territory included in only one or two countries are included in the atlas of the present-day country. For example the Ottoman Empire can be found in the Atlas of Turkey.

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