Far flung in the Eastern Caribbean there is a 100 square mile British Crown colony known as the Cayman Islands. These islands which are considered the most remote islands of the Caribbean are composed of Grand Cayman, Little Cayman, and Cayman Brac.
From a geographical perspective, the island are located between 19 degrees 15' and 19 degrees 45 north latitude and between 79 degrees 44' and 81 degrees 27' west longitude, well within the tropical zone.
Grand Cayman, the largest and most populous, is about 150 miles south of Cuba and about 180 miles west of Jamaica....just 60 miles to the east-north east of lies Little Cayman, and a further 4 miles on is Cayman Brac...Grand Cayman is about 22 miles long and 8 miles at maximum width, with its most striking feature the North Sound, a reef protected area of shallow sea measuring just 7 miles by 6 miles, and almost cutting the islands in tow. Cayman Brac, the second most populous islands is about 12 miles long and little over 1 mile wide. It is marked by a high bluff which rises to a 140 feet vertical cliff at the eastern tip - the highest elevation in the three islands. Little Cayman, the least populous, is also the flattest, at less than 40 feet. The island is about 2 miles at its widest.
However, Cayman's history commenced officially, on May 1503 when Christopher Columbus discovered the then uninhabited islands of Little Cayman and Cayman Brac. It was on his final voyage tot eh New World, Columbus' flotilla entourage was between Panama and Hispaniola, when a freak wind blew it off course and the sailors stumbled up on Grant Cayman's sister island.
The log entry by Columbus' son Fernando, documents the discovery :
We were in sight of two very small and low islands, full of tortoises, as was all the sea about in so much that they looked like little rocks.
Initially, the islands were first named Las Tortugas, after turtles Columbus saw; two decades later a map showed them under the name Laquartos, meaning alligators or large lizards - possibly an allusion to the iguanas which may still be found; and years later, the name which stuck, Caymanas derived from the Carib Indian name for the marine crocodile. On the other hand, the Treaty of Madrid in 1670 transferred the Cayman Islands from Spain to Great Britain.
ECONOMY
Tourism and banking are the major industries
in the Cayman Islands. Tourism has grown by leaps and bounds in
recent years. In 1966, 8,244 tourist visited Cayman; in 1976 the
figure was 105,493 and in 1997 1.2 million.
Likewise, banking which only emerged 36 years ago has developed impressively. Presently there are 525 registered banks and trust companies, of which number 44 of the 50 top banks in the world are represented.
Only London and New York have more registered banks than Cayman.
The combined population of the Cayman Islands, according to recent census, is 32,000.
Last updated : May 10, 1998
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