Everyone understands that an island is a piece of land encircled by water. In total, there are about 500 thousand islands on our planet. They are all different in size and form.
Below, Afrinik presents the five smallest inhabited islands in the world. You can’t even imagine how tiny the islets are; however, people live on them, and many of them are popular tourist attractions.
1. Just Room Enough Island (Thousand Islands Archipelago)
The Thousand Islands archipelago stretches along the St. Lawrence River along the US-Canadian border. The archipelago has over 1,800 islands, some of which are tiny. Many of these islands have residential buildings, and one of them is the smallest inhabited island in the world.
The area of the island is only 306 m². In 1950, this small piece of sushi was acquired by the American Sizeland family. They named the island Just Room Enough Island. And they had enough room to plant a tree and build a tiny house.
2. Dunbar Island
Another tiny island inhabited by people is located in Honduras. Not far from the coast of Guanaja Island, there is a rocky island in the middle of the bay, and on it is a snow-white villa. The area of the island does not exceed half a hectare.
The three-story villa was built over almost three years due to the rugged rocky terrain. A small human-made oak forest surrounds the building. Now the estate is a top-rated diving hotel.
3. Bishop Rock
It is a rock in the Scilly Archipelago off the southwest coast of England in the Atlantic Ocean. Bishop entered the Guinness Book of Records as the smallest built-up island on our planet. There is a lighthouse right across the entire area of the rock; it seems that it has grown directly from the sea. It was tough to build it here, the first attempts were unsuccessful, but it was possible to do it 160 years ago. The lighthouse was erected for seven long years; for the construction, they took huge granite slabs. Now their total weight is about 6,000 tons.
The lighthouse started working in 1858, but after that, in 1875, one of the most significant shipwrecks in the entire history of Britain happened. A sailboat sailing near Bishop ran aground. A navigation error led to the death of 335 people; only 37 were able to escape.
4. Pontikonisi
It is considered one of the most popular and most beautiful historical sites in Greece. Pontikonisi is located next to Cape Kanoni, south of Corfu in the Mediterranean Sea. It is all buried in greenery, so it isn’t easy to see what is there, but the white steps that lead to the top of the hill are visible. If you look at this place from a distance, the ascent from the steps looks like a mouse’s tail. Therefore, in another way, it is called Mouse Island.
On Pontikonisi, the Byzantine Church of Pantokrator was built at the end of the 11th and beginning of the 12th centuries. In the 16th century, a small monastery was erected here, which became world-famous, as it painted colorful Byzantine icons.
5. Wilhelmstein
In northwestern Germany, near Hanover, there is a lake called Steinhuder Meer. A human-made island with a fortress was built on it in the 18th century by Count William of Schaumburg-Lippe for the defense of a small county belonging to him.
For several years in a row, the local population supplied the construction with sand, gravel, and stones transported in boats in summer and sleds on a frozen lake in winter. The result is a small square-shaped island named after Count Wilhelmstein, and the fortress is built in the form of a star with four rays. At different times, it housed first a military school and then a prison. Now this place is owned by the Schaumburg-Lippe family, who are descendants of Count Wilhelm.
