GALAPAGOS FACTS AND FIGURES
Straddling the Equator, the Galapagos Islands are located in both the northern and southern hemispheres.
The archipelago consists of 13 main islands, 6 smaller islands and 107 rocks and islets.
Nearly 9,000 species are found on the islands and their surrounding waters, many of them exceptionally rare.
The total land mass is almost 8,000 km. sq. The Galapagos Marine Reserve surrounding the archipelago is 138,000 km. sq.
The Galapagos National Park covers about 95% of the islands.
Around 250,000 giant tortoises are thought to have lived on Galapagos before the arrival of humans. Today only 15,000-20,000 survive.
In 1835, Charles Darwin sailed to the Galapagos Islands on the H.M.S. Beagle. In 1859 he published the ‘Origin of Species’, which introduced the concept of Natural Selection.