The Galapagos Islands belong to Ecuador in the northwestern part of South America. The archipelago in the Pacific Ocean consists of 19 volcanic islands, measuring in area from 1 sqm and up to 4.588 sqm. In addition, there are 100 small islands and cliffs. Galapagos Islands islands are scattered across the equator in the Pacific Ocean approx. 970 km west of Ecuador and covers a total area of 8.010 sqm.
De ca. 28.000 inhabitants live on five of the Galapagos Islands, most of which live on the island of Santa Cruz.
Although the Galapagos Islands are between 0,7 million and 4.5 million years old, they were not officially discovered until 1535.
At 1835, Charles Darwin came to the islands to study the unique animal and plant life not found anywhere else on earth. Later he published his famous "Origin of Species". It was the first official theory of natural selection, which is about 'the strongest survival in nature'.
In 1959, the archipelago got official status as National Park and later, in 1978, they were admitted to UNESCO's World Heritage List.
The name of the archipelago comes from the Spanish word 'Galapago' which means saddle. The name refers to the resemblance between the large shields of the archipelago's land turtles and a Spanish saddle.