Île de Riou, Island off the southern coast of Marseille, France
Île de Riou is the largest island in the Riou archipelago, a group of islands off the southern coast of Marseille, beyond the Calanques. It is roughly 2 miles (about 3 km) across at its longest, with flat pebbly and sandy beaches on the northern shore and tall limestone cliffs on the southeastern side dropping straight into the sea.
People lived on the island as far back as the Neolithic period, leaving behind pottery and tools found in one of its small valleys. Over the following centuries it was used as a stopping point by sailors from various ancient cultures, and later watchtowers and cisterns were built there to monitor the sea approaches to Marseille.
The island belongs to the Calanques National Park and is known among divers for the waters around the Impériaux rocks, where large sea fans and sponges grow at varying depths. Visitors who land on the northern beaches find no facilities or structures, just open rock, sparse plants, and nesting seabirds overhead.
The island is accessible only by private boat, and there are no public facilities or supplies on shore. Landing is permitted only on the northern beaches, and access to other parts of the island is restricted under national park rules.
In 2000, a local diver found wreckage off the eastern coast of the island later identified as the P-38 Lightning flown by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the author of The Little Prince, who vanished on a mission in 1944. The discovery confirmed where his last flight ended, but the exact circumstances of his disappearance remain unknown.
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